


Everyman Needs a Companion

by cutestlarries



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, But the man with the curly hair and women’s clothes is quickly and dangerously stealing his heart, Ex boyfriend drama, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Louis Tomlinson doesn't do boyfriends, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-09-19
Updated: 2016-09-10
Packaged: 2018-04-21 13:47:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 27,698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4831328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutestlarries/pseuds/cutestlarries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What good could possibly come from Louis Tomlinson attending a lesbian baby shower? It's as he's counting down the minutes until he can leave that Louis bumps into a certain curly-haired lad and subsequently spills the entirety of his grapefruit mocktail on himself. Zayn wasn't kidding, there are fit men at this party. </p><p>Or the AU where something's holding Harry back. It's a shamelessly QAF-inspired, comedic tale, featuring Louis as a local play actor and Harry as a photographer. The two meet at the Edwards-Teasdale Baby Shower and a mutual attraction emerges.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to our other angel J Tillman for the title. 
> 
> Chapters posted on weekends. 
> 
> Comment and let us know what you think! Thanks

Louis steals a sip of his grapefruit mocktail. There are no real cocktails present at the Edwards-Teasdale Baby Shower. His drink mixes perfectly with the rest of the party décor: pink and a little queer. As Louis glances around the living room-turned party area he currently stands in, he can’t help but think of all of the other places he could be. Not that accompanying his best friend to his lesbian ex-girlfriend and her older stylist partner’s baby shower isn’t exactly where he wants to be. When Zayn begged Louis to stand in as his date to the occasion, Louis could not think of a single excuse. As You Like It had no rehearsals planned for this cursed Saturday morning, and Louis was not scheduled to work at the pub tonight, not that the 11:30 am time of the party would interfere with his work schedule. Louis thinks smugly of Zayn’s somewhat pathetic begging. “Louis, pleeease come with me. There will be loads of fit blokes there!” 

“You know that lesbians only hang out with other lesbians, Zayn.” 

“Please Lou, I’ll owe you a favor, whatever you want, at any time.” 

“I don’t think so Zayn.”

And yet, here he stands. Alone, sipping lamely at a juice drink that is hardly nursing his hangover from the night before. Louis smiles slightly as he remembers the previous night and the tall, muscular blonde man that he nearly pulled. That is until Zayn, the whiner, had texted him “999!” 999 happened to be the ultimate dilemma Zayn faced at the prospect of attending his ex’s baby shower alone. The sheer discomfort at the thought of himself as the only straight man in attendance at a lesbian baby shower resulted in him dragging Louis, his only gay friend, into the mix. Louis looks around at the other guests and comes to the conclusion that Zayn is an absolutely ridiculous human being; he did not need Louis at this party in the slightest. They’re only lesbians, anyway. Where even is the sod, Louis thinks bitterly. He hasn’t laid eyes on Zayn in over twenty-three minutes. Two minutes after they walked through the door, Zayn thought he would get the awkward inevitability out of the way. He sought out Perrie, the infamous ex, now playing hostess alongside her extremely pregnant partner Lou. Louis is counting the minutes because he remembers Zayn said that they only had to stay an hour. Only thirty-five minutes to go.

It is at this moment that Zayn reappears, to Louis’ surprise, arm in arm with Perrie.

“Lou! There you are,” his best friend greets.

“Hello Tommo! I haven’t seen you since that night at Champeau Rouge! Remember back when Zaynie and I were still an item,” Perrie warmly exclaims with a wink at Zayn.

“Hello Pez, great to see you again. I see you two look cozy,” Louis remarks with slightly raised eyebrows.

“Oh yes, I was just dying to see Zayn, you know. Of course we could never work as a couple. I think we have a little too much in common if you know what I mean, but I just had to see him again and get caught up. Louis, have you met Lou? I expect she is chatting with Hazza right now, but I’ll have to introduce you two. I swear you would get along just wonderfully!”

Perrie says this all very quickly and Louis is just wondering if he and Zayn could somehow escape without her notice, but at this moment Perrie grabs his arm and exclaims, “Oi Niall! There’s someone I want you to meet.”

Louis nearly spills the remainder of his grapefruit mocktail. With a quick scornful look at Zayn, who merely shrugs, Louis begrudgingly follows Perrie’s lead.

“Hiya Pez, who’s this?” the blonde, blue-eyed boy that Louis had not spotted until this moment responds in a thick Irish accent.

“This is Louis Tomlinson, Zayn’s best mate. You know Zayn, the one that got away,” Perrie adds with another wink. “Have you seen my spouse? I want to introduce her to Louis here.”

“I expect she and Harry still are talking in the bedroom, you know when they start their talks.”

“Ugh, I wish they would come downstairs. This party is for Lux, you know?”

“Who?” Louis inquires.

“Lux, the baby. Anyway, you two get to talking and I’m going to go get those two,” Perrie declares with a parting glance at the boys.

Louis glances at the Irish boy. He is wearing dark tight jeans, booties, and a flannel with a frayed edge. He is not Louis’ type in the slightest.

“How are you?” Louis asks with an attempt at polite nonchalance.

“Spiffy mate, I tell you. Have you tried the deviled eggs? They’re delicious. I swear the caterer’s cooking is something else. How do you know Perrie and Lou again?” Niall says very quickly.

“Oh, uh, I’m friends with Zayn. He dragged me here against my will.”

“Ha!” Niall barks out a laugh. “You’re funny. I can see why you’re friends with the girls.”

“Yeah. How do you know them?” Louis asks a little gawkily.

“Oh, I’m best mates with Harry from uni. Moved from Mullingar to come to uni in London, you see. We were dormmates as freshers and best mates ever since,” Niall says somewhat proudly.

“Uh, who is Harry again?” Louis asks, feeling a little sheepish. Niall made Harry out to be the guest of honor or something.

“Harry, the father. He, uh, you know, donated his, uh…guys.”

“The sperm donor? He’s here at the party? Why?”

“Why not! He’s only been a friend of Lou’s for like five years. Have you not met him?” Niall asks, looking serious.

“No. I’ve only just arrived a few minutes ago you see…with Zayn. I’m not sure where he’s got to anyway…” Louis trails off. 

“Oi Payno!” Niall yells, clearly not having listened to a word Louis said.

“Louis, this is Liam Payne, Harry’s other best mate from childhood. They grew up together in Cheshire,” Niall explains.

“Oh, hello,” Louis says in greeting, feeling increasingly out of place for not knowing this all-important Harry character.

“Hi. Louis is it?”

“Yeah.”

“Do you know Harry?”

“Uh…no. I‘m friends with Zayn.” Liam’s face shows no sign of recognition. “Perrie’s ex.”

“Oh. Well nice to meet you. Are you enjoying the party so far?”

“Yeah,” Louis responds, a little shy. Louis assesses that this Liam bloke is both extremely good looking and indefinitely more his type than Niall is. Louis’ eyes scale over Liam’s body. He sports a henley and some straight-legged grey jeans. Hmpf, Louis thinks, dressed a little casually for my taste. “Yourself?” 

“Yeah, I just can’t believe the baby is due any day now.”

“Yeah. It’s crazy,” replies Louis, who honestly did not know that the baby existed until 13 hours ago. “Do you think you will be present at the birth?” Louis asks, momentarily forgetting his social awareness and immediately regretting his use of speech.

“Uh…I’m sure Harry will be there and I think that he will ask me to come along,” Liam assesses, his introspective look suggesting that he honestly hadn’t thought of it before. “But who can be sure.”

“Yeah. Who can be sure of anything,” Louis replies, rather stupidly. An awkward silent period accompanies this statement. Zayn wallows up to the uncomfortable group and Louis feels the desperate need to make introductions.

“Liam, Niall, this is my best mate Zayn…He, uh, used to date Perrie. I mean before she became - I mean realized that, well, you know…uh, she dates girls…I mean before Lou came along…agh. Perrie’s ex.”

“Hi Zayn, how are you doing at the ex’s soirée?” Niall asks graciously in response to Louis’ flounder.

“Yeah. I am doing awesome. It’s honestly nice that the ex is not dating some hot, posh man. I mean, she’s cohabiting with a women so I don’t feel like I need to compensate for anything.”

“That’s quite the assessment,” Liam states.

“Yeah, way to be aware, man, “ the Irishman declares, enthusiastically desperate to change the subject. He loudly exclaims, “Ah! Here’s Harry.”

Harry. Finally. Louis has been waiting a full seven minutes for this guy. Louis moves his entire body rather quickly to take a look at the man. As he turns, he completely collides with a stately dark mass, causing his grapefruit mocktail to spill quite a bit over onto his blue button up.

“Oops,” he hears, from a deep, drawling voice. Louis immediately snaps his head up, as if a reflex from hearing the voice. He had been examining the collar of his shirt with a grimace, as the sticky, sweet juice was sure to leave a stain on the material. As he looks up, he meets a pair of green eyes. With a breath of surprise, Louis speaks: ”Hi,” he says, feeling rather moronic.

“Sorry about upsetting your mocktail there,” the tall, green-eyed man drawls while nodding towards Louis’ glass.

“Oh, uh, no harm done...well, no harm done to me, but to my collar here, that’s a different story.” God, why was he so awkward today?

“Ha!” the man literally barks a laugh. “Here, let me help your poor collar out. I know Lou keeps some tonic water and tide-to-go somewhere in this hovel.” The man grabs Louis’ wrist carefully and delicately, as if he wanted to ensure the state of Louis’ daintiness. Being drug away from the group, Louis begins to assess the state of his escort. A tall, dark-haired man with emerald green eyes, from what Louis can tell. His infinite legs dawn a pair of sinfully tight black jeans, while his broad upper body supports a yellow, palm-tree printed Hawaiian shirt. His shoulder-length, curly chocolate brown locks hang loose, wavering as he strides with Louis’ wrist clasped in his own hand.

“I’m Louis, “ Louis says, in a state of semi-blind shock.

“Harry,” the man replies. “I haven’t seen you around before. How do you know Lou?” Harry asks just as they arrive at a room off of the main hallway.

“Uh…I don’t actually,” Louis responds, somewhat robotically. 

“Well you must be a baby shower crasher then. I know you guys are a real big problem in the newborn baby world, even if there’s no Owen Wilson movie framing your issue.” 

Harry states this casually as he turns on a light in the new room.

“…Yeah, I mean…I’m not a party crasher. I…uh…I know Perrie.” What the fuck is wrong with him today.

“Oh?” Harry prompts.

“Yeah…Zayn….Perrie’s ex, he uh, is my best mate…Perrie invited us both here today.” Jesus. Fuck.

“Pez is the greatest,” Harry says as he begins to shift around through a laundry basket pile.

“Yeah, she is very sweet. I can’t say that I’ve seen a lot of her in the past couple years though. I mean, having to help Zayn move on after her was almost a full-time position.”

“I can imagine…Aha!” Harry exclaims excitedly. “Found it!” Harry immediately goes for Louis’ shirt, pressing the pen into the collar, onto Louis’ collarbone, which the shorter man can honestly not say that he minds.

“This stuff always does the trick. I remember back in third year Niall - fucking Niall, you’ve met the bloke right? Anyways, the Irishman eats like a mad cow. He entered this sausage and kipper eating contest, like who would enter that?...”

Louis stares at Harry while tells his seemingly pointless story, attempting and failing to overcome his massive state of shock about the man standing in front of him. Harry is a god, an Adonis if Louis’ has ever imagined one. Louis can’t even rack his mind to think of a time when he’s seen a more attractive human. Louis ventures a look up to meet Harry’s eyes and finds the other man’s green orbs attentively gazing at Louis’ as if to beg an answer of an unspoken question. Louis’ mouth falls open and he hears Harry ask in a distant voice, “Would you like to sit down? On the bed, I mean.”

Louis feels himself nod without consciously acknowledging the motion. Harry leads the pair of them to sit on the bed. A few more moments drag on of Harry pushing the Tide-to-Go pen into the collar of Louis’ stupid shirt while the taller man simultaneously goes on and on about some story of detergent, bleach, and staining oils on t-shirts. Somewhere before Harry begins to describe in detail about dusting off the lint-catcher, Louis finds his voice.

“So Harry, how did you become the father of this baby?”

Harry stares pensively in Louis’ direction, although Louis is not certain that the green-eyed boy is staring at him or just thinking over the question he was just asked.

“Well, I met Lou in second-year. I was an art student and arts degrees require students to go out, like into the fashion or art world and intern for two terms. I thought I wanted to go into fashion design, as many young gay men do, and I applied for an internship at TomAtkin Designs, the label Lou used to style for. And I got the job! And by job, I really mean fetching Lou Teasdale coffee or saltines or a tampon whenever she decided that she needed it. It was great.” He can’t decide whether or not Harry’s being sarcastic. 

“So your and Lou’s relationship developed from intern to supervisor to sperm-donor to pregnant woman rather quickly then?” Louis asks with a spark of genuine curiosity.

“I wouldn’t say that,” Harry responds thoughtfully. “After the first couple of weeks of incessant coffee ordering, Lou actually began to open up, and I realized that we had some stuff in common, and that she made me laugh and made me think about what I actually wanted from my Arts degree. She’s the one who prompted me to try out photography. Soon she became like a mentor to me. I never would be where I am today without her guidance.”

“You’re a photographer?” Louis questions

“Yeah. But right now I work in another photographer’s gallery, I’m trying to get my stuff shown in there.”

“What kinds of things do you photograph?”

“I love music so whenever I go to a show, or like a festival, I photograph the artist. I think it’s inspiring to capture a moment of art being created, you know, like when a musician takes the stage or spins the disk or even dances around, it’s incredible. I love to capture it.”

“Do you ever photograph actors?” Louis asks this with a shy smile and when he looks back up, Harry is staring at him. 

“Well, I’m mostly amateur so I haven’t really gotten into stage photography.”

“Oh. That’s too bad…so when you finished your internship at TomAtkin, you and Lou maintained your relationship?”

“Yeah, I mean, she became so much more than just a boss to me. She and I get on so well, I don’t even know why.”

“That’s special. It’s nice to have people like that.” 

“Yeah.” There’s a pause and Louis glances down at Harry’s hands still fiddling with his collar. “How long’ve you and Zayn been mates?”

“Since college. We met up in Doncaster and moved down to London together.”

“For uni?”

“No I wanted to be an actor so I thought I should move down to the city to make it big and Zayn just wanted a change of pace.”

“Do you not want to be an actor anymore?”

“Well, I still act, though not very successfully. Uh, mostly do community theater stuff. Not the West End Stage or anything. But I’m currently working on a production of As You Like It.” Louis could feel his cheeks warming up as he began to talk about the theater. He doesn’t know why he’s so shy around this man, but he does know that he never wants Harry’s abnormally large hands to stop touching him…even if they are only touching his shirt.

“I’m not familiar with that play. What is it about?”

The two men spend the next twenty-two minutes in the spare room talking about God knows what before Louis glances around at the clock on the bedside table and remembers the deal he and Zayn made about only staying an hour. It was nearly time to leave and yet, Louis didn’t want to leave Harry’s side at all.

“Louis?”

“Oh, uh, what was that?” Louis had zoned out for a moment and did not catch Harry’s question.

“Ah, never mind,” Harry says, shaking his head. “Should we head back out to the party?”

Harry stands up off of the bed and makes his way to the door.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

It’s as he watches the beautiful man walk away, eyes taking in his broad shoulders clad in that ridiculous shirt and perfect bum, that Louis knows he’s fucked.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading !
> 
> Chapter 3 will be posted next weekend

In the months following the shower Louis does not think about Harry. He does not think about Harry when he is doing laundry. He does not think about Harry during slow nights at the pub. He does not think about Harry when Zayn tells him that baby Lux has been born a month after the shower. It’s becoming easier for Louis not to think about Harry when he considers how fatherhood might be treating him and how involved the curly-haired man might be in Lux’s life.

As more time passes after the shower, Louis becomes busier with rehearsals and taking extra shifts at the pub to compensate for his increase in rent this month. His sense of regret for not getting Harry’s number at the Edwards-Teasdale Baby Shower diminishes, as his nights are now spent in exhaustion. He’s too tired for restless, thought-ridden nights and dreams of Harry.

“Oh, look Lou. Perrie just sent me this.” Zayn hands Louis his iPhone and Louis looks down at a photo of a two-month-old baby wearing the leopard print onesie he and Zayn brought as a gift to the shower.

“Cute kid,” Louis comments nonchalantly, attempting to mask the heart-fluttering image he has in his head of Harry dressing the baby in the outfit.

“I’ll tell her you said that,” Zayn says as he takes his phone back from Louis. The two of them are taking some much-needed leisure time and spending the lazy afternoon at Louis’ flat. Zayn’s days off and Louis’ rehearsal-free days rarely coincide as of late, and the best mates haven’t spent proper time together in nearly three weeks.

“Have you talked to Perrie a lot since the shower?”

“No, not really. I think she’s been pretty busy with having a baby. You know, not much time for chatting with her ex. She just asked me how I’ve been.”

“So she was serious then, about the friends thing,” Louis assesses as he gets up to refill the kettle. “Want more tea?”

“I could do with another cuppa. Hey, you remember that Harry guy?”

“Uh…” Louis begins racking his brain for any sort of normal response. He’s not sure why he didn’t tell Zayn about his lengthy, intimate conversation with Harry at the party. Maybe the same reason why Louis did not feel inclined to ask for Harry’s number. He can’t remember a time when he had proper feelings for someone; his initial state of infatuation with Harry scared him. At age 27, Louis has never even had a proper, serious relationship with a man, and he absolutely hates talking about his feelings. He was not prepared for interrogation that would have surely followed a confession to Zayn. “How could I not? That Niall bloke basically gave a ten-minute soliloquy on Harry’s greatness. They’ll be announcing their engagement any day now.”

“I sincerely doubt that. When I was talking to him, he recited a similar monologue about the caterer’s breasts.”

“Interesting...so why’d you ask, anyway?”

“Well Perrie’s just invited us to an opening at the gallery that Harry works at. Apparently he has some photos being shown in the new exhibit.”

“Wow, that’s impressive, but why would he invite us?” Louis asks inquisitively with a desperate attempt at keeping his voice casual, despite the butterfly, heart-pounding, twisting sensation occurring somewhere in his abdomen.

“I’m not sure, but Perrie’s is insisting that we both attend. She says that it’s going to be her and Lou’s first night out without the baby so it’s a big deal. Also she says that we have to come by soon and meet Lux, the baby.”

“Yeah, I remember the name. When is this gallery exhibit thing? I might have plans.”

“With who? The guys from the play? I thought you were quote-unquote ‘done with those wankers.’” Zayn imitates an irritated Louis from last month, who blamed one of the worst hangovers he’s ever experienced on the poor choice in liquor brought about by his fellow thespians. The theater lads’ nights were a thing of the past, Louis had told Zayn.

“Um, no. Just with some other friends.”

“Well you can tell your other friends that you’re busy this Friday. Perrie insisted that you come along.”

“One of these days you are going to get an actual date and then you are going to kick me to the curb.”

“Well, until that time comes, I’m stuck with you so buck up.”

.

On Friday night, Louis waits for Zayn outside of the Little Flamingo Café where he works as a waiter. When Zayn finishes collecting his tips for the day, the two of them will make their way to Harry’s gallery via the tube. Louis nervously pats his quiff, thinking about the fact that in a mere twenty-seven minutes he may be face to face with the star of his recent fantasies. Louis would be lying if he said he did not change his outfit repeatedly until he found one that would both accentuate his arse and make his cerulean eyes pop. His hair may have also taken him three times the normal amount of time to style, the perfect quiff requiring immense concentration. The outfit Louis settled on is a little edgier than usual – a maroon shirt covered by a black blazer and a pair of tight black trousers. Zayn emerges from the café wearing a black button down and black straight-legged pants.

“Ready?” he asks as he takes a fag out of his pocket and places it in his mouth.

“You know it. How do I look?” Louis asks, as they start to walk towards the tube station, anxiously seeking self-assurance. 

“Great. I would blow you. Why? Hoping to meet a nice gentleman at the gallery opening? I told you that Niall character chases skirts, man.”

“It’s a gallery opening. There’s bound to be some gay men there.” Louis scoffs. “Harry is gay,” he adds as an afterthought.

“Oh?” Zayn looks over at his best friend with a smug expression on his face. “Is Harry the one you want to impress with your ensemble?”

“Well I won’t deny that the lad is fit as fuck, but let’s just get to this thing.”

They arrive outside the abstract concrete Cal Aurand gallery at precisely 19:07. The invitation said to arrive at 19:00 for cocktails and hors d’oeuvres. Louis wonders idly whether they should dawdle outside for a few minutes before going in. He doesn’t know if he is ready to face Harry again. Should he act excited to see the lad again after all of these months or should he act cool and pretend to hardly remember him? As he is pondering these thoughts, Louis catches Zayn approaching the glass front doors of the gallery.

Panicked, Louis sputters, “Zayn, wait. Shouldn’t we wait a few before going in?”

“Why? Do you want to be fashionably late for Harry?” Zayn asks with a smirk.

He wouldn’t stop teasing Louis about Harry for the duration of their journey. Louis did not confirm nor deny his desire to impress Harry and embraced Zayn’s mocking in silence.

“Oh, come on. Let’s just get this over with,” Louis says as he marches ahead of Zayn and pulls open the door.

As they walk through the glass doors, Louis takes in the scene around him. Groups of people standing around high tables holding drink glasses and servers walking around with trays of what look like caviar and watercress, whatever that is. Throughout the gallery, a series of black and white photos hang on the walls. Louis instantly looks for photographs of musicians, what Harry told had him was his favorite subject.

“Zaynie! Louis! I’m so glad you both came!” Perrie exclaims from Louis’ right. Louis snaps his head around and spies Perrie coming towards him and Zayn, hand in hand with a slightly taller blonde woman. When Perrie reaches them, she embraces Zayn in a hug.

“Hi, I’m Lou,” the blonde woman says as she extracts her hand and holds it out for Louis to shake.

“Louis,” he says as he shakes her hand. “I take it you are Lux’s other mummy.”

“Oh, no, I’m Perrie’s mistress. The other misses doesn’t know about me.”

“That’s funny, I’m here as Zayn’s mistress as well. He doesn’t want people to know that he’s gay,” Louis deadpans.

“What are you saying about me?” Zayn asks Louis indignantly. He turns to Lou with a sweet voice, “Hello Lou, how is motherhood treating you?”

“Like hell. This is my first day wearing makeup and a real bra in ages.”

“Lou was meant to be a mother. Lux is our little pride and joy,” Perrie states with a look of what Louis could only describe as idyllic pride. “Hello Louis. It’s good to see you,” she says to Louis with a sweet smile.

At that moment, the distinct sound of a utensil hitting glass fills the room. The four of them look up towards the sound as the rest of the room quiets down. Harry is stood at the center of the room looking striking in a black blazer, skinny jeans, and what Louis thinks may be a women’s red patterned paisley shirt. His shirt is worn with the top five buttons undone, but what Louis imagines would be a beautifully sculpted chest is hidden by a skinny scarf matching the print on his shirt.

“Hello everyone and thank you for coming. My name is Harry Styles and I’m curator here at Cal’s gallery. Tonight I have the great honor of introducing the exhibit, in which some of my own work will be shown. Black and white…”

Harry goes on to talk about the type of photos that will be shown in the gallery. Louis listens intently to the man speak in his characteristically slow drawl. He takes in every word, staring intently at the way Harry’s pink lips move as he speaks and the way his green eyes seem to light up as he talks about the artwork. Louis can’t help but to imagine what Harry’s mouth would feel like on his skin, and how his bright eyes might darken if Louis got his hands on him. Louis’ increasingly dirty thoughts are interrupted by applause; Harry’s mouth had stopped moving and was now caught in a closed-lipped smile. Shit. Louis is still staring. When he raises his gaze to look up into Harry’s eyes, he sees the taller man staring back at him. Louis looks away quickly and turns to speak to Zayn, Lou, and Perrie.

“Shall we go look at some photos?”

“Yes, but first we need to congratulate Mr. Styles!” Perrie squeals.

“Aw, doesn’t my baby daddy look good up there?” Lou coos while waving him over. 

Louis looks back towards Harry and sees that his two friends, Niall and Liam, are now standing around him. Harry waves and the three of them turn to stare in Louis’ direction. He looks away from Harry in horror. As he approaches, Louis’ mind moves rapidly in twelve different directions as he grasps for something clever or interesting to say. Before he comes up with anything at all, Harry and the two other men are upon them. 

“Hello everyone. Thank you so much for coming,” Harry says politely, with his hands clasped behind his back.

“Zayn and Louis, right?” Liam asks imploringly. The two men nod.

“Well, it’s very nice to see you two again.”

“Thanks, you as well, and congratulations Harry. Excited to see your pictures,” Zayn says in response to Liam.

“Haz is a great talent, you guys just wait and see,” Niall exclaims brightly, Irish accent in full force.

“Yes, we are all very proud of little Hazza,” says Lou as she pinches her protégée’s cheeks. 

“Thanks for all of the loving support.” Harry looks around at the group until his eyes meet Louis’ and he asks warmly, “And how are you Louis?”

Louis sputters, “Oh, me? I’m doing great, excellent. Excited for the show.”

“Well I’m excited for you to see it. I’ll let you all look around. If you’ll excuse me, I need to speak with some patrons.”

“Okay,” Perrie claps her hands together excitedly. While Harry moves away, she and Lou turn towards the photos and begin to examine the set.

It’s just the four boys standing together. “Do you guys go to many gallery openings?” Liam asks. Louis again notes how casually the brown-eyed man is dressed. He wears a plain black tee shirt and jeans, but what is really surprising is his red and black flannel worn tied around the waist.

“Not really, I don’t really consider myself an fine arts patron too much,” Zayn responds.

“I can say the same for meself, but I make an exception in Harry’s case," the Irishman explains.

“What do you two do then?” Louis asks.

“I’m a guitarist, unsigned but playing in pubs and for smaller venues at the time. I spent a few years after school working in sales, but I never thought that the business world was for me,” elucidates Niall.

“That’s awesome.” 

“And I’m a greengrocer. I manage an organic grocery, Fresh N Fine in Islington,” Liam pipes in. “Shall we?” He gestures towards the photos.

“Sure,” Zayn says, while Louis and Niall nod.

A little while later, Louis finds himself finishing off his second glass of champagne, slowly making his way through some of Harry’s pictures on his own. Zayn stalked away ages ago muttering something about Louis having a sick obsession. Louis examines a particularly captivating photo of a girl standing in a lighted walkway. Half of her face is hidden as she turns around to look back in the direction of the camera, but her dark eyes look beyond its lens.

“Enjoying yourself?” a deep voice asks Louis from behind.

He jumps and would have spilled his champagne if he hadn’t been almost finished. He turns to find Harry; Louis really should never hold a drink in the man’s presence.

“Shit, Harry. You scared me. Almost made me spill my second drink.”

Harry chuckles. “Thankfully your drink is almost empty this time. Although I cannot truly say I am sorry for giving you a fright. It’s pretty cute when you get all flustered. But anyways, what do you think of the photos?”

Louis gapes at him while his stomach does several backflips. “Uh, thank you. But, uh, the photos are really good, excellent.”

“Thank you, Louis.” Harry smiles at him. “Would you like another glass of champagne?” he asks, gesturing to one of the tuxedoed men walking around with trays.

“Sure,” Louis replies automatically. Like he could ever say no to Harry. Harry reaches for his empty flute and replaces it as he thanks the waiter. 

“Cheers.” Louis points to the photo of the girl from before Harry snuck up on him and says, “This photo really stands out to me.”

Harry gives the photo a calculating look and then turns back to face Louis.

“I don’t really know much about photographs, but I can just see a lot of emotion in it, sadness or regret, but I could be completely off.” Louis doesn’t want to make an idiot of himself in front of Harry, not that he hasn’t already. Harry simply gazes at him with a look that Louis would almost describe as fondness. Louis takes a long sip of champagne and a silence stretches on between them. He needs to say something quick, anything.

“Who is she, anyway?” Okay, Louis thinks, that wasn’t horrible, but he definitely could have chosen something more clever or funny to say. 

“Hmm?”

“The girl, in the photo, who is she?” he asks again, sticking to his guns.

“Oh, that’s my older sister, Gemma,” replies Harry, looking back at the picture with a smile. “She also lives here in London, but I don’t get to see her that much. She’s a PhD student.”

“Oh, wow. That’s incredible.” Louis incredulity is genuine; he didn’t even make it through uni. “I’m relieved. I thought she might have been your girlfriend.” Louis gives Harry a flirtatious grin. Finally, the Tommo is getting his groove back.

“I thought you knew that I don’t swing that way,” Harry says through a cheeky grin, moving in closer to whisper in Louis’ ear. “In fact, I came over here to tell you that I want to take you out to dinner and that I’ve deeply regretted not getting your number ever since that bloody shower three months ago.”

Louis swallows. He moves back to look up at Harry’s face, rendered utterly speechless.

“I hope you’ll take this and give me a call tomorrow.” Harry holds out a business card that Louis takes without uttering a word. He looks at it and sees Harry’s information and job title below the Cal Aurand logo.

“Have a good night, Louis.” With those parting words, Harry struts off in the direction of an older gentlemen Louis learned earlier was the very Cal Aurand from whom the gallery got its name.

For the second time, Louis thinks about how utterly fucked he is as he watches the tall, beautiful man walk away with his slightly feminine stride. “G’night, Harry.”


	3. Chapter 3

“A date, Zayn. He wants to take me on a date.” 

Zayn looks up at Louis from where he had been looking down at his phone. He stands behind the cash register at the Little Flamingo where he is currently in the middle of an eight-hour shift. Louis often comes in during the midday lull to bombard his best friend with various crises. Today’s comes in the form of Louis’ impending date with Harry, or rather Louis’ impending doom with dialing Harry’s number off of his business card and actually speaking to him on the phone to schedule said date.

“Well that’s good, innit? You’ve been obsessed with him for three months.” He looks back down at his phone.

Louis looks at him, flabbergasted. “That’s completely…I don’t know where you’ve got that from…I don’t even know him!”

“You spent thirty minutes alone with him at Perrie and Lou’s. I’ve never seen you so subdued, after. It was like you had taken a Valium or something. You texted me five different outfit options the night of the opening. Clearly your outfit choice was for Harry’s benefit.”

“Well…you weren’t supposed to catch on. I don’t do this shit; get obsessed with people like this. I can’t stop thinking about him and his stupid girl clothing and pretentious photography bullshit. I’m already in way over my head.”

“Just call him, Louis,” he says flatly without looking up from his phone.

“I’ve entered the number. I can’t bring myself to press send. I’m nervous. I’m shit at phone calls. What am I supposed to do with my hands at the table? Do I put my napkin on my lap straight away? Is he going to pay for my meal?”

“Oh my god.” Zayn finally looks up and grabs Louis’ phone out of his hands. He presses send before Louis even knows what is happening and places the phone next to his ear. Harry answers on the first ring.

“Hello?” Louis hears Harry’s low voice through the phone. Zayn holds it out for him.

“I’m going to castrate you,” Louis whispers to Zayn as he takes the phone begrudgingly and brings it to his ear.

“Hi Harry. It’s Louis. I uh…got your number and am calling you.”

Harry laughs. “Hi Louis. I’m glad you called. I’d really like to take you to dinner tonight, if you’re free.”

“Tonight?” He looks at Zayn who mouths ‘say yes.’ “I am free tonight…so what time were you thinking?”

“I can stop by your place when I finish up here at the gallery.”

“Yeah, that’s good. I can text you my address.”

“Okay.”

. 

Four hours later, Louis stands outside of Arbutus, the restaurant Harry picked out for the evening. They decided to meet there instead of at Louis’ flat because it would have been out of the way for Harry to commute all the way down to Louis’ when the restaurant was closer to the gallery. Harry protested and said that he wanted to pick up Louis properly, but Louis put his most courteous foot forward and refused, stating that he did not want to inconvenience Harry. In earnest however, Louis’ reasoning emerged from his intense fear of dating. While Louis can say that he has not been on too many proper dates, he knows that he is absolutely shit at it. Louis finds it much easier to make conversation with a bloke that he has just shagged; the knowledge that he will have no need to see or contact the just-shagged bloke again removes the tremendous pressure Louis feels while conversing with a date. Louis already knows that he likes Harry very much and therefore already feels two hundred times the pressure he feels on a normal date. Zayn, the saint and savior of Louis’ life, arranged for his co-worker who fancies him, Lauren, to cover the rest of his shift while he assisted Louis in his date preparations. The most important of these, helping Louis decide what on earth he was going to wear. After numerous outfit changes, which included outfits too fancy, not fancy enough, trying too hard, and just downright out-of-style, Zayn helped Louis put together the stylish triumph that Louis now wears: a white, graphic print t-shirt and black skinny jeans.

“Louis!” Harry’s voice pulls Louis out of his revelry. “I’m so sorry I’m late. I got caught up with some patrons,” he huffs out, noticeably out of breath as he approaches Louis.

“That’s quite alright,” Louis comments with a reassuring smile. “Wow Harry, I can’t believe you ran here from the gallery for me. I feel so special.” Louis takes in Harry’s appearance as the younger man regains his breath. Louis' breath catches in his throat as he takes in Harry’s face, framed almost angelically by his chocolate brown waves. Harry wears a soft white button up, with the top five buttons undone, partially revealing the two sparrow tattoos on his chest. His endless legs covered by black jeans and brown suede booties.

“I didn’t want to miss the reservation. You had nothing to do with it,” Harry banters, grin full of mirth. “I caught the tube, cut ten minutes out of my commute. Let’s go inside, shall we?” Harry walks towards the door and holds it open for Louis.

“Such a gentleman. Holding the door open for me and everything.”

Harry flashes Louis a toothy grin, revealing two dimples. Louis’ heart actually flutters. What the fuck is his problem. He has dimples. What is he?

Harry laughs, “What am I?”

“Did I say that out loud?”

Harry laughs even harder. “I’m afraid so.”

“Well I was just thinking, you are the only grown man I know with dimples. How old are you anyway?”

Harry smirks, dimples still on full display. “Twenty-five.” They approach the seating hostess. “Styles for two,” Harry says politely.

“Man-child,” Louis says to himself.

“Right this way,” the hostess says as she beckons them to follow her. She leads them across the restaurant to a booth in the back corner.

“Thank you,” Louis says.

“Of course. Can I start you two off with a glass of wine?” The waitress asks as she hands Harry the wine list and he peruses it briefly.

“Sure, I’ll have a glass of the Cavas Parés Balta.” Harry holds out the list for Louis to take.

“Uh…I’ll do the same,” Louis says after pretending to read it for a moment. He knows absolutely nothing about wines.

“You a big wine drinker?” Harry asks Louis with a look of genuine interest.

Louis gives a noncommittal shrug. “I like it, but I can’t say I know much about it really. You?”

“Well, I won’t pretend I’m a wine expert or anything, but my mom and stepdad are enthusiasts so they raised my sister and I to be of the same mold.”

“How old is your sister?” Louis asks, remembering her from Harry’s photo at the gallery.

“She’s twenty-seven. We’ve always been pretty close, Gemma and I. She’s been very busy this past year though, with her starting her PhD, and she got married last year too.” Harry says this with a sad kind of smile.

“Do you miss her?”

“Yeah, it was hard now that she’s married. It’s like she has a different life, like she’s not just a sister or a daughter, but a wife. We’re not as close as we used to be…what about you? Do you have any brothers or sisters?” Harry asks.

The conversation flows after that. Louis talks about his family, all of his sisters and his baby brother, his mom, his friends back home in Doncaster. Harry shares about his friendships with Liam and Niall, how Liam was there for Harry when he realized he was gay, and how Niall is the most carefree and accepting person he’s ever known. Louis talks about his and Zayn’s adventures and his love for the theater. Harry talks about Lou and baby Lux, how he plans and being a part of her life, how he was nervous about being a father, and how the fear melted away once he met Lux. Louis tells dramatic stories about his experience working as bartender at the pub. Harry talks about photography. They both reminisce on college, childhood, and adolescence. Louis makes Harry laugh, makes him laugh hard, several times, twice hard enough to bring tears to Harry’s eyes and once hard enough to the point that he nearly choked on his Cornish cod. Harry’s laugh goes all the way to his eyes, bringing out his dimples and raking his entire body. Louis smiles fondly at the sight of Harry, giggling at some stupid remark Louis made about his year ten maths teacher looking like Professor Snape.

By the time the waitress brings them their check and Harry grabs the book before Louis even has a chance to reach for it, the restaurant is nearing closing. Louis doesn’t want to date to end. He can’t remember the last time he was this immediately comfortable with another person who wasn’t his mother or Zayn.

“Do you want to go get a drink after this?” Louis finds himself asking Harry.

“Definitely,” Harry says with a smile.

A few hours and many drinks later, Louis is a little drunk. He and Harry are sat on two bar stools at Milk and Honey, one of Louis’ favorite gay bars in all of London. He knows he is drunk when he pokes his finger into Harry’s left dimple. Louis realizes that it’s quite fun to touch Harry’s dimples and that he would very much like to touch Harry in other places as well. Harry grabs Louis’ finger and engulfs Louis’ entire hand in his own. Harry leans into Louis and whispers wetly into his ear, “Do you want to get out of here?”

Louis giggles. He just can’t keep a straight face with Harry whispering in his ear like that. “Sure,” he slurs.

Harry keeps hold of Louis’ hand as he gets up off the bar stool and leads Louis to the door. Once they are outside, Harry walks a little ways away from the bar entrance and the surrounding throng of patrons lingering near the door. When they are more isolated, Harry pushes Louis up against the wall and breathes hotly in his face.

“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the first time I saw you, drinking grapefruit juice, wearing those obscenely tight pants. Who wears that to a baby shower?”

Louis’ brain is muddled and he finds it extremely difficult to speak.

“I, uh…Zayn said there would be hot guys at the shower. He wasn’t wrong. You were there, also wearing tight pants.”

“Well, I guess it was meant to be then,” Harry says before closing the gap between their lips.

Louis, surprised, gasps into Harry’s kiss. Harry’s hands come to grip into Louis’ hips as he stands pinning Louis down against the wall. Louis opens his mouth to grant Harry entrance. Louis’ entire body feels like it is on fire. Kissing Harry is fucking amazing. Harry’s huge lips against his own, their tongues doing some sort of dance, fighting for dominance. Harry moves his hands to cup Louis’ face and then to the back of Louis’ head as he presses up into the older man. Louis can sense every plane of Harry’s body. And Louis, so drunk before on vodka tonics, now feels completely drunk on Harry. Louis’ hands unknowingly move up to Harry’s hair, tangling into his soft locks which elicits a moan from the younger man. Louis cannot say how long they continue to kiss desperately against the wall. It feels like hours before Harry teeth graze over Louis’ bottom lip and he moves away, desperate to catch his breath. Harry looks how Louis feels, absolutely wrecked; eyes glassy, cheeks flushed, and parted lips, panting. He puts his hands up on the wall on either side of Louis’ face.

“Louis,” he breathes.

“Hi,” Louis whispers back, before tugging Harry down into another kiss. This second connection of their lips isn’t any less urgent than the first, but it’s sweeter, softer somehow. Louis actually sighs into the kiss. He really likes kissing Harry; so much so he thinks he could do it forever. Louis doesn’t know if five or fifty minutes go by, all he can think of is Harry. Harry’s lips, Harry’s green eyes, darkening after pressing up against Louis. Louis imagines what it would feel like to be in bed with Harry, to have his entire body open for Louis to explore. But after what feels like both mere seconds and several hours, Harry pulls away and grabs Louis’ hand, leading them in the direction of the tube.


	4. Chapter 4

“When we got to the tube he kissed me goodnight and said that he really wanted to see me again…” Louis rambles on to Zayn with a sickeningly dreamy expression on his face.

“For fuck’s sake, Lou. You told me already! You’re in love with Harry and want to get married and have his babies and grow old with him,” Zayn retorts rather grumpily just as Louis’ phone dings with another text from Harry.

It’s two days after Louis’ date with Harry and he and Zayn are sat on Louis’ quilt in the park near Zayn’s flat. They’ve been taking advantage of one of London’s rare sunny days; lounging in the park catching up, or rather Louis has been giving Zayn multiple moment-by-moment recounts of the date, all while texting Harry non-stop. Their message stream has been flowing quite effortlessly since the morning after the date, when Louis responded to Harry’s good morning text message. Just mindless things, stupid puns Harry thinks of during the day, or new ideas he has for a photo project. Louis tells Harry when he thinks of a prank he can pull on Zayn, or when something funny happens at rehearsal. Louis eagerly wanted to ask Harry to do something on Saturday night, but the As You Like It lads advised him against it, telling him it would seem a little desperate the night after their date. Regretfully, Louis remained home alone that night instead of going out with the lads, discovering through their texts that the younger man was also at home.

“I never said any of that. I just really like spending time with him and snogging him. God, he is an amazing kisser.”

“Please spare me the details,” Zayn says with a prominent eye roll. “Did you just stick your tongue out at me? You really are losing your mind.”

For the rest of the day, Louis tries to keep the Harry talk and obsessive texting to a minimum, for the benefit of both Zayn’s and his own sanity.

.

Rehearsal-free Mondays are Louis’ favorite kind of Mondays. He can have a lie in without any responsibility until his shift at the pub. Today, however, Louis had texted Harry early in the morning and asked him what his lunch plans were. 

That’s how Louis finds himself approaching Cal Aurand Gallery at lunchtime on Monday. He walks through the glass doors and immediately sees Harry standing over a large work desk examining some prints. Louis appreciates Harry’s face of deep concentration, his eyebrows a little furrowed as if trying to solve a complex riddle. The intensity of Louis’ stare must alert Harry of his presence because the younger boy suddenly looks up and flashes Louis a smile that’s full of dimples.

“Hi Louis.”

“Hi Harry. What are you working on?” Harry frowns as he glances down at the photograph he was holding up moments before.

“I’m looking through these photos I took yesterday. They just didn’t turn out how I wanted them to. I know Liam tried to not look all surly and serious, but he just looks foolish in all of them.”

“Can I see?”

“Yeah, come here. What are you doing over there?” Louis is still standing across the room from Harry and the work desk.

“Just admiring the view,” Louis admits with a shy smile. Harry smiles back. “So why did you photograph Liam?”

Hurry shrugs. “Just trying to practice capturing more everyday things. He just tenses up so much in front of the camera, like he is actually modeling for something. It’s a little frustrating, but I know he’s only trying to help me out.”

“What about Niall?”

“He and I don’t really see eye-to-eye on professional issues,” Harry says with a laugh. “Meaning he finds it hard to take it seriously when I photograph him. I’d rather deal with Liam’s camera shyness than Niall’s flippancy…anyways, enough of this. Want to go eat?”

“Sure. There’s this great sandwich shop near Hyde Park. They have the best roast beef you’ll ever have. If I were requesting a last meal…you’re not a vegetarian are you?” Louis looks over and sees a laughing Harry. Louis scowls and crosses his arms. “What’s so funny?”

Harry smiles fondly at him. “Just watching you light up as you talk about a sandwich, it’s pretty endearing.”

“Watch it Styles or else I might not take you to get said sandwich,” Louis retorts, smiling all the same.

“Oh no! How will I go on?”

The two men make their way to get sandwiches. They decide to walk rather than take the tube because it’s another sunny day and walking is more romantic, or at least that’s what Louis thinks. Harry is more likely to hold his hand or kiss him outside than on the crowded underground. Plus, it’s not like the walk to the park is that long anyways.

“Do you photograph Liam a lot?” For some reason, Louis feels a twinge of jealously at the thought of Liam constantly posing for Harry. Not that Louis wants to pose for Harry; the camera is absolutely dreadful for his figure, how it adds 5 kilos and what not. He just doesn’t like the idea of Harry spending hours photographing hunky greengrocer men. 

“Not really.” Harry looks out his peripheral and squints at Louis in a knowing way. It’s as if he can read his mind and can perfectly follow Louis’ train of thought. “I asked him if I could shoot him in April. It took him that long to say yes; the camera makes him so nervous. I took photos of him once before that. Actually, it was quite funny because Liam wanted sort of like a glamour shot type of photo because he wanted to give his girlfriend at the time a framed picture of him for her birthday.” Harry smiles at the memory. “I have the set saved in three different places. You know, for blackmail. They are hysterical, you need to see them.”

Feeling more reassured that Liam is in fact straight, and that Harry sees him as ridiculous and not attractive, Louis gives in to the funny anecdote and laughs along with Harry. “That sounds incredible. Liam doesn’t seem the type to take glamour shots for a girl.”

“He’s a right man of mystery.” Harry gives Louis another knowing gaze. “You could if you wanted to. Get to know him, I mean.”

“Are you trying to set me up with Liam, Harry? Is that what this is all about? Me taking you to get a sandwich so you can pawn me off to your glamour grocer best mate? I’ve never felt so used—”

Harry cups his hand over Louis mouth. “You’ve learned my motive, I don’t want you at all. I just had a passionate snogging session with you so you would buy me a sandwich.”

In a moment of inspiration, Louis grabs the hand that cups his mouth and intertwines the fingers with his own. With a smile, Harry accepts the new status of their interconnected hands. They walk hand and hand, Louis asking Harry more about his various photo subjects throughout the years and eventually the two of them make it to the sandwich shop. It is only after they have gotten their sandwiches and gone to the park and are sat on Louis’ favorite thinking rock to eat them when Harry asks Louis if he can photograph him sometime. Louis nearly chokes on his roast beef.

“But why would you want to photograph me? I am not photogenic at all.”

“You are so dramatic and a liar. You are too photogenic.”

“You’ve never even seen a photo of me.”

“Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat. You know when I added you on Facebook after the baby shower I thoroughly stalked you. I wanted to see if there were any photos of you in those black pants. I was disappointed, but your Instagram is seriously lacking photos of you. I wanted—”

“Okay, fine, but you’ve never seen a serious photo of me…hey!” Harry had taken out his phone and seemed to have taken a photo of Louis.

“I love that. The camera loves that. You are a natural.” Harry says as he snaps even more photos, to Louis’ horror.

“Stop it. I hate pictures!” Louis reaches out to push Harry playfully; Harry grabs Louis’ hand and kisses it, meeting Louis’ eyes thoughtfully.

“Don’t you know how attractive I find you?” The genuine look in Harry’s eyes makes Louis look away, as if the sincerity of Harry’s stare had burned him.

“Okay, Harry, enough of this. How about I take a picture of you? I’ll make it my phone background. How does that make you feel?” Louis says, trying to regain some of his composure while taking Harry’s attention off of him.

“I would love for a picture of my face to be your lock and home screen. That way, people would know not to flirt with you.” This causes Louis to, again, almost choke on his sandwich. It’s not that Louis doesn’t want to be taken by Harry; he’s just never had a proper boyfriend. Louis knows he would screw it up. He’s absolute shit at relationships, just ask his ex-girlfriends. Anyways, it’s too soon for him and Harry to define their relationship. All that Louis knows is that he likes Harry and wants to see him and spend time with him everyday, but ‘boyfriend’ is just too much pressure. Louis doesn’t want to jeopardize whatever he and Harry have going for them. 

Louis squawks. “I guess you can take some photos of me if you wanted…you know, for photography practice; nothing to hang in a gallery or anything, but if you wanted like personal photos of me for a personal reason.” Whatever that means.

“A gallery full of photos of you would be the most beautiful room in the entire universe.”

“Shut up, Harry.” Louis smiles in spite of himself. This time it’s Louis who grabs Harry’s hand and kisses it. Harry’s face flushes with pleasure as he squeezes Louis’ hand back.

The rest of the week is filled with moments like these, Louis meeting Harry for lunch, Harry picking up Louis from rehearsal; the two of them stealing kisses and holding hands. On Thursday evening, Louis arrives at the pub reluctantly, wishing he could spend the night with Harry instead. It’s only a few short hours later that Louis is surprised to find the curly-haired man walk into the pub with Niall and Liam in tow. Louis is so excited to see Harry, it’s all he can do not to jump over the bar and grab Harry’s face and kiss him into oblivion. Louis’ eyes meet Harry’s and the younger man smiles somewhat shyly at him. Louis matches his smile at once.

“Oi, Tommo! What’s it take to get a pint around here?” Niall greets in his most brutish, Irish manner.

Liam laughs and waves at Louis. “Easy, Niall. Let the man get over his shock.” Louis had been gaping at the trio open-mouthed before he smiled at Harry. 

“That’ll be nine quid, but ten if you’re feeling friendly.” Louis retorts with a wink, trying to establish that he is not the floundering idiot Niall and Liam think he is.

“Hi,” says Harry when he approaches Louis, only the bar separating them.

Louis leans forward and pulls Harry into a kiss. Harry gasps, but kisses him back all the same, opening his mouth to deepen the kiss. Fuck customs and bar policy. Louis is going to kiss Harry when he walks into the bar and surprises him, looking like a rock-and-roll sex god, wearing another ridiculous woman’s blouse unbuttoned, with those sinfully tight black pants that they share. His curly locks hang loose around his face. God, he is so fucking fit it hurts Louis to look at him sometimes. Someone wolf-whistles. Louis thinks it’s maybe time to stop kissing his fit-as-fuck-almost-kind-of-boyfriend in the middle of the crowded pub that he currently should be bartending. He lets go eventually.

“Hi,” Louis says peppering a last chaste kiss against Harry’s lips. “Boys,” Louis nods towards the other two.

“Erm, I don’t think that you need to greet us as friendly as you did Harry,” Niall says looking uncertain.

“You don’t want a kiss Nialler?” Louis makes grabby hands at the Irishman as he decides that it’s quite fun to make him squirm. Louis spares a glance at the other two. Liam looks amused at Niall’s discomfort, but Harry a little crestfallen. Louis can’t have Harry looking like that. “I’m so glad you guys are here! What brought on the excursion?” Louis addresses all three of them, but only has eyes for Harry, who is frowning down at the bar.

“Thursday night is lad’s night out tradition. The three of us always try to meet up on Thursdays and Harry mentioned that you worked here around fifty times and tonight he was moping about how he wished he could go out with you instead. So Niall here, the smartest of us all, suggested taking lad’s night to you.”

“Aww, Hazza. Were you were missing me? How sweeeeet!” Louis grabs Harry’s cheeks and pinches them, which finally causes the man-child to look up and smile at Louis.

“I just want to spend every moment with you Lewis!” Harry endearingly replies while attempting to lick Louis’ hand currently touching his face.

“Ditto, Harold.” Louis drops his hands and turns to the others. “So three pints?”

The lads end up staying until midnight, which is when Niall and Liam say goodnight. Harry, however, says he’ll stay until last call, if that’s all right with Louis, of course. Louis almost squirms with excitement at the possibility of Harry walking him home and Louis inviting him up to his flat. Harry helps Louis clean up and close after last call, and the two of them then decide to walk back to Louis’ flat, Louis hoping that maybe Harry will want to come up and stay the night. Even at 2:30, the distance from the pub to Louis’ is short enough to walk. Louis reaches for Harry’s hand almost the instant they exit the pub. Harry intertwines their fingers and squeezes Louis’ hand for a brief moment.

“Thanks for staying until closing.”

“Of course, Louis. I told you I want to spend all the time that I can with you…and I don’t like the thought of you closing and walking home all by yourself.”

“It’s okay. I do it all the time.”

“It’s not safe!”

“Do you see anyone around? Who is going to attack me? A drunken pub-crawler? I may be smaller than you, you giant, but don’t underestimate my strength.” Louis tries to lighten the mood.

“I just want you to be safe.”

“Well if you want, I’ll hire you to be my personal bodyguard and you can protect me at all hours of the night.” 

“Come on, Louis. Be serious. I just don’t think it’s smart to walk alone at 2:00 in the middle of London.”

“Just leave it alone, Harry. It is what it is.” Louis felt charmed by Harry’s protectiveness at first, but he is tired and starting to become exasperated. Harry expressed some distaste when Louis first told him about working at the pub, but he seemed to have gotten over it because he laughed when Louis told him some stories about crazy patrons he’s encountered there over the years.

“Well, I don’t like it.”

“I can try and talk to Ben and see if he can stop scheduling me to close on my own. Okay?”

“Okay.” Harry glances over at Louis’ haggard expression. “I’m sorry. I just get protective of people I care a lot about.”

Louis’ annoyance melts away pretty quickly after that. Hearing Harry name him as the object of his affection makes his heart flutter and his stomach fill with butterflies.

“I care a lot about you too, Harry.” Louis spies the other man smiling down at the ground, looking rather pleased.

By the time they arrive at Louis’ flat, Louis is overwhelmed with the same intense desire to kiss Harry he had felt back at the bar. When they approach the front door to the building, Louis feels uncertain.

“So…do you want to…uh, come up?” Louis looks at Harry hopefully, who smiles at him.

“Well, I just made a fuss at the idea of you walking home in the middle of the night, so I think I should maybe not do that.” Louis laughs. “So yes, I would like to come up.”

“Come on, you dork.”

Harry has never seen Louis’ flat before and Louis has never been this nervous to invite a man up. Usually he is drunk enough to not care about impressing anyone. While he doesn’t feel the need to impress Harry, he wants him to enjoy himself. Louis is awful at entertaining guests. He suddenly remembers his desire to kiss Harry and his nerves fall a little bit by the wayside. They reach the door and Louis fumbles a little clumsily with the key, but gets it unlocked eventually. He holds the door open for Harry and then closes it.

“Thank you for walking me home.”

“Of course,” Harry smiles, as he takes in Louis’ flat. It’s not much, but it’s the best Louis can afford on a part-time-actor-turned-bartender’s salary. Louis has the main room decorated cozily, with a shaggy rug and comfy couch he inherited from his mother the center point in the main room leading to the kitchen. “Your place is so you,” Harry says, still smiling. His eyes land on Louis, who is staring intently at Harry like a crazy person.

“So me? Does that mean you like it?” Louis takes a step closer to Harry.

Harry moves toward Louis. “Well I like you, so if A is equal to B and B is equal to C.”

“What are you even talking about?” Harry’s face is inches from Louis’.

Harry takes the last step and then presses his mouth onto Louis’, who responds immediately and pulls Harry into him and wraps his arms around his neck. Harry walks them back towards the wall next to Louis’ door and kisses him passionately. Louis can feel Harry’s heart beating wildly against his own as the taller man presses even closer into him. Their tongues meet and Louis tilts his head upwards, curling against Harry and sucking his tongue into his mouth, swallowing Harry’s quiet moan. 

Louis lets Harry shove his knee between his thighs and grab his hips, pulling him against his crotch, his teeth catching Louis’ bottom lip. Louis moves his hand up and grips Harry’s curls, so that the taller boy can tilt his head and deepen the kiss. 

Louis can’t breathe. He can’t even think as Harry’s tongue meets his. As Harry grabs Louis’ hips again, Louis can feel the other man getting hard and he can’t deny that he is in a similar state. Louis draws back and Harry bites Louis’ lip with his teeth before he lets go. Louis needs to catch his breath. He can feel Harry’s chest expanding against his own. Louis tilts his head back and closes his eyes. His lips feel wet and swollen; Harry brings his hand up to run his thumb over them. Louis shivers as he opens his mouth and swipes his tongue across Harry’s digit. When Harry’s pulls his thumb out of Louis’ mouth, Louis suddenly feels that he has too many clothes on. He needs to shed them, needs to feel the burn of Harry’s skin against his. It’s just as he’s thinking this that he feels Harry’s hands as they snake underneath his t-shirt, making contact with naked skin, and Louis feels like he might as well die and go to heaven. Louis groans as Harry’s lips trail down his neck and he starts to suck a bruise into Louis’ collarbone. Louis then reaches to get his hands underneath Harry’s blouse to unbutton the few buttons the younger man bothered to fasten in the first place. He then slides it off his shoulders, leaving Harry naked from the waist up. Louis’ hands and eyes roam over Harry’s toned, tattooed chest. Louis can’t help but laugh when his hands run over the ridiculous butterfly tattoo inked onto his upper abdominals.

“Are you laughing at my tattoo?” Harry says in a dazed voice.

Louis looks up to meet his eyes, smiles, and pulls him down for another kiss. He welcomes Harry’s hands when they reach to pull Louis’ shirt off over his head, causing the two pairs of lips to break apart. Harry’s hands then reach down to Louis hips and then onto the button of his jeans. Louis thinks he going to die when Harry unbuttons them and slips his hands inside. His breath catches and he opens his eyes—when did he shut them?—and watches Harry, who runs his fingers over the base of Louis’ cock. Louis brings his hands to rest on Harry’s hips, where his nails begin to dig into his flesh, which causes the taller man to bow his head and attach his lips to Louis’ neck.

“Fuck, yes. Harry.” Louis releases short ragged breaths as he pushes his hips forward. Harry, fired on by Louis’ noises and movements, pushes Louis’ jeans down all together with his pants. Louis moves to get his hands underneath Harry’s jeans, but they are just too damn tight.

“Let’s get into bed,” Louis says as he releases Harry’s neck from the attachment of his lips.

Louis pushes Harry forward, surging his lips against the taller boy’s urging him in the direction of Louis’ bedroom. Leaving their forgotten clothes behind, Louis stark naked and Harry still held captive by his jeans, the two men stumble rather clumsily toward Louis’ bedroom. Well, Harry is rather clumsy, but Louis thinks it’s fucking hot. He never thought someone tripping over his shag rug would turn him on so much. Fuck. He needs to get his hands on him. 

They enter the bedroom and Louis pushes Harry down onto the bed immediately and goes to work on his jeans. He unbuttons them and sees that the younger man hadn’t bothered to put on any pants. Louis looks up at the other man’s face with half-hooded eyes. Harry’s green eyes stare back, darkened and full of lust. Louis brings his mouth up to Harry’s and then pushes up to gain some leverage to pull his jeans off of his Amazonian legs. Louis finally manages to pull them off as he sees Harry’s massive cock spring free, fully hard and flushed, pre-come beading out of the slit. Fuck. Louis has never seen such a gorgeous cock before. 

Louis crawls forward until he’s encasing Harry with his body as best he can with the size difference. He leans down to capture his lips in yet another kiss; he could kiss Harry forever. He takes hold of Harry’s length and it feels big and heavy in Louis’ hand. A deep moan escapes from Harry. Louis removes his hand and then ducks his head down and kisses all over the smooth, tattooed skin of Harry’s abdomen, lightly running his tongue over the place with the butterfly and nipping a little at his hipbones. Louis lifts up and glances up at Harry’s face. Harry stares back at Louis in a right state.

“Want me to suck your cock?” Louis thinks a direct approach is always best.

Harry chokes out a laugh that sounds more like a strangled moan. “Fuck. Yes, Louis.”

That’s all Louis needed to hear. He ducks his head down and licks a stripe from the base of Harry’s cock all the way up to the tip. Louis then takes Harry into his mouth, until the tip hits the back of his throat.

“Louis.” Harry breathes out and Louis looks up at him, his eyes glassy and stormy blue. Louis thinks that seeing Harry like this, all worked up and pliant underneath him is the hottest thing he’s ever seen. Harry reaches down to tangle his fingers in Louis’ hair. The touch makes Louis hum around his cock. Louis pulls back and circles Harry’s head with his tongue a few times before sucking on it as if his life depended on it.

“Fuck, Louis. I’m close already.”

Louis reaches to cup at Harry’s balls. Harry whines, “Lou, please. Fuck.”

Louis moves his free hand to cup into Harry’s hip, digging a bruise into one of the ferns tattooed there. He can feel Harry getting close by the way the younger man’s stomach muscles tighten under his thumb. Louis pulls off entirely, making Harry whine again, as he begins to mutter incoherently. Louis licks along the vein on the underside of Harry’s shaft, before taking Harry’s length further and further into his mouth until the tip hits the back of his throat again and he’s got his nose pressed against warm skin and coarse hair.

“Louis, I’m gonna—stop, I’m gonna—”

Louis hums in recognition around Harry’s cock. When he swallows around the younger man, it seems to be the last straw.

“Fuck.” Harry starts coming down Louis’ throat.

When Louis pulls off, he looks up through his lashes at Harry who is staring at him fondly with glassy eyes.

“Fuck, Louis, you are a fucking talent. That was—come here.” Harry reaches out and pulls Louis to lie on top of him. Who is Louis to say no to that. He kisses Harry as he reaches him and is sure the younger man can taste himself on Louis’ tongue.

“Your turn.”

. 

The next morning, Louis wakes up to an iPhone alarm and an arm drooped over his waist.

“Harry. Turn that the fuck off.” Louis is not a morning person. Why do you think he works nights?

“Hmpf.”

Louis unwinds himself from Harry’s draped arm and nudges him. “Harry, come on. I don’t need to be up for another hour. Get up.”

“Alright. I’m getting up.” Harry, who had been lying opposite Louis, turns around and grabs the hand that Louis had been nudging him with and pulls him down for a good morning kiss. Harry tastes like sleep and something distinctly Harry that makes Louis’ toes curl.

“Morning.”

“I hate the morning. But this isn’t so bad, waking up next to you.”

“Aww, Louis!” Harry actually reaches to pinch Louis’ cheeks. “A true romantic!” He sits up and plants a wet kiss on Louis’ cheek before getting out of bed. Louis realizes that he is completely naked, his cock swinging freely as he walks through the door of Louis’ bedroom and into the hallway.

Louis decides to be hospitable and make Harry some tea, or does he like coffee? Louis has no idea. He decides to go ask the curly-haired wonder. He walks into the bathroom where he sees Harold washing his teeth. Louis puts his head onto Harry’s shoulder and snakes his arms around his waist.

“Hey, how do you take your—is that my toothbrush?”

Harry meets his eyes in the mirror and raises his eyebrows cheekily before spitting.

“Maybe.” He turns his head to give Louis an over the shoulder peck. “What were you asking?” He puts Louis’ toothbrush back into the toothbrush holder.

“I was going to ask if you prefer coffee or tea.”

Harry smiles closed mouthed at him. “Tea, please. With two sugars.”

“Coming right up. In a traveler cup or do you have time?”

“A mug please.”

Approximately twenty-seven minutes later, Harry is going to be late to work and Louis doesn’t want to see him go. They are both standing in Louis’ doorway, Louis in his favorite robe and Harry wearing his same jeans from the night before. Louis gave him a shirt to wear. It’s big enough for Harry because a bloke Louis shagged once left it at his place. His name was Ian or Ethan or maybe it was Evan, but he was 6’5” and his shirt looks better on Harry than it looked on him, from what Louis can remember anyway. Louis wonders whether Ethan left his flat without a shirt on, or if he took one of Louis’. He hopes it's the former. He expresses this train of thought out loud to Harry, whose reaction ranges from annoyance to a mention of one of Louis’ previous trysts to amusement at Louis’ lack of remembrance to laughter at Louis’ conclusion.

“Can I see you tonight?” Louis asks Harry hopefully. “I don’t have to work so we can do something! Go out with the lads, or just the two of us. I don’t care as long—”

Harry cuts him off with a kiss, a proper snog, as he takes Louis into his arms and actually fucking lifts him off of his feet. Louis is genuinely surprised that the taller man doesn’t spin him around. He is like a character from a fucking novel.

“Of course. I’ll call you when I finish at the gallery, probably early this afternoon. I don’t have that much to do today.” He turns to walk away, but then turns back and places a final, chaste peck on Louis’ lips.

“Bye.”

“Bye, have a good day. I’ll miss you.” And he does. He misses Harry the moment he leaves and Louis doesn’t think about how far gone he is already. The man with the curly hair and women’s clothes is quickly and dangerously stealing his heart.


	5. Chapter 5

“Harryyyy. Where are we going?” Louis pouts as his boyfriend-but-not drags him along down the unfamiliar cobbled, Camden street. It’s Saturday night and Louis can hardly believe his luck that he is walking hand in hand with the most gorgeous man he’s ever laid eyes on. He can’t believe his luck that this is the third night in a row he is spending with the beautiful man, and that Harry is including Louis in the little things of his life. Last night, for instance, Louis observed Harry in his element, at the show for the unsigned indie band that Louis would never be caught dead listening to, but Harry likes them so what the hell. 

Anyways, Louis focused more on Harry snapping photos of the band than to the band itself. That is, until Zayn told him that his ‘Harry Obsession’ was showing. Louis and Zayn were invited to sit at the front table with Liam, Niall, and Harry, so that Harry could take photos without having to push through the crowd. The night ended with Harry accompanying Louis to his flat and giving the older man the best blowjob he’s ever received. Louis smiles at the memory of Harry between his legs, looking up at him through his dark green eyes, and Louis tangling his fingers in the chocolate locks, and Harry humming around his dick in appreciation. 

“Almost there, Louis. I swear!”

Tonight it’s just the two of them, Louis having ditched Zayn’s plans to go out for the prospect of spending more time with just Harry. How could he say no Harry’s invitation? Its not like Zayn doesn’t have other friends, or maybe he will even go out with Liam and Niall. Louis loves the idea of his friends hanging out with Harry’s friends.

They arrive at what looks like an outdoor wedding ceremony, albeit a pretty casually decorated wedding. Long columns of beach chairs are arranged in rows, with an aisle way down the middle. Louis looks up the aisle and sees a large projector screen.

“Is this one of those outdoors cinemas?” Louis asks Harry imploringly.

“Yeah. I bought the tickets ages ago. You have to buy them like months in advance. Thought I would have to come here with Niall or Liam or maybe Lou, but then I met you and decided I wanted to take you.”

“Did you decide you wanted to take me after the baby shower? Or after the exhibit opening?”

“Well, I decided I wanted to date you at the baby shower. I purchased the tickets shortly after and I won’t deny I imagined taking you. We talked about your acting aspirations and I thought you would appreciate fine cinema.”

Louis does love movies. “What movie are we watching?” He can’t believe Harry bought these tickets for the two of them after the baby shower. It seems that he is just as taken with Louis as Louis is with him. The thought makes him quiver, but also want to grab Harry and kiss him hard.

“It Follows. It’s supposed to be the greatest horror film of the last decade. Amazing score, and a unique story.”

“Did you bring me to a scary movie so that I would need you to protect me?” Louis asks semi-seriously. He is not the biggest fan of horror.

Harry smiles shyly. “Maybe.”

They go to one of the food stands and buy some popcorn to snack on during the film and make their way to their seats. As the movie progresses, Louis can appreciate it’s cinematic quality, as well as Harry’s arm pulling him close. Louis also appreciates how thoughtful Harry is, remembering Louis’ aspirations and interests for months. While Louis might have been annoyed at anyone else reminding him of his failed acting aspirations, he finds it endearing and so sweet in Harry.

After the film is over, Louis is downright terrified to ever have sex again—which in the film, passes along a virus in the form of a figure always walking towards you. He still sits comfortably with Harry’s arm wrapped around him, his head leaning into Harry’s side.

“I’m never shagging again.”

Harry looks down at him with thoughtful eyes, “I hope that’s not true. That would be like a crime against humanity with an ass like that.”

“I guess I could make an exception for you. I trust that you don’t have it, but that’s exactly what the girl in the film thought about her boyfriend, and you aren’t even my boyfriend so maybe I shouldn’t trust you.”

“Well that’s just your problem, isn’t it?” Harry says with a tone of finality as he extracts his arm from around Louis and gets up out of his seat.

Louis is utterly confused. My problem? What is he talking about?

“Ready to go?” Harry asks as he stretches his arms displaying his giant wingspan.

“Yeah…should we go grab a drink somewhere?”

That night, Harry and Louis go back to Harry’s place that he shares with Liam. A quaint little two-bedroom flat right near the grocery that Liam manages. The main room doesn’t match Harry’s style, but it’s cozy all the same.

“Did Liam decorate this room?” Louis implores as he snoops around the room.

“Yeah, well, this was his flat first. I moved in around a year and a half ago.

“He lived here by himself?”

“Yeah…uh, my bedroom’s technically an office. My move-in was unexpected.” Harry stares at his feet.

“What do you mean?”

Harry responds while still staring at his feet. “I wasn’t expecting to move in and Liam wasn’t expecting a roommate.”

Louis is extremely curious, but for some reason it seems like a subject Harry doesn’t wanted to delve into, so instead Louis says, “Let’s go see this room of yours.”

That night, after a round of orgasms, Louis lays wrapped up in Harry’s arms in his tiny bed that they somehow fit in together perfectly.

“Thank you for tonight. I really enjoyed the movie. And I like that you remember everything that we talked about when we first met.” Harry moves his face in to plant a kiss on the top of Louis’ head.

“Thanks for coming with me. You’re special to me, Louis. I like listening to you and spending time with you.”

Louis’ heart melts at that; Harry is genuinely the sweetest person he’s ever met. He makes the cheesiest things sound so sincere.

Louis cuddles closer into Harry’s side. “I like you a lot, Harry.”

“I like you a lot too.” Harry’s voice is heavy with sleep.

“Let’s sleep baby.” This time its Louis who moves his lips up to kiss him.

“G’night Lou,” Harry breathes as he lets his eyes fall shut in sleep.

“Goodnight Harry,” Louis whispers. 

.

The following Thursday is opening night for As You Like It, and Louis is a nervous wreck. It’s not the prospect of performing in front of an audience that scares Louis. He can do that in his sleep. It’s the prospect of performing in front of Harry. He’s currently sat in his dressing area. He doesn’t get a room, even though he is portraying the male lead. The Tower Theater Company does not have that kind of a budget, even for their starring actor. Eleanor, the woman playing the female lead, demanded that she have a private room for dressing. She is extremely difficult and not that talented as an actress. Louis will be glad to be rid of her after the play concludes, but unfortunately, for the next weekend, Eleanor is the Rosalind to his Orlando.

What Louis is really looking forward to is the cast party, held backstage after the show. All of the cast, crew, and their family and friends will be in attendance; and there will be plenty of booze. In Louis’ wildest fantasies, when he walks backstage after the show, Harry will be waiting with a huge bouquet and at first opportunity, Louis will run into his arms and Harry will kiss him. But Louis has to perform first. What if he completely fucks up his lines in front of Harry? Louis has seen Harry in his element; at the gallery with his fucking amazing photos hanging all over the walls. Harry won’t want to be with someone who is so terrible at his chosen craft. Not that he and Harry are even together, but Louis was sort-of hoping that they could be. If Harry thinks Louis can’t act, it will be a total turnoff. What was Louis even thinking, inviting Harry here? Zayn is the only friend of Louis’ who has seen one of his plays. Louis didn’t even invite his mom or anyone else in his family to opening night for that matter. Harry asked Louis if he could invite Niall, Liam, Lou, and Perrie; and Louis has not been able to say no to Harry since he’s met him. Before he knows it, before he is ready, Louis hears his name being called, alerting him to come to stage.

Louis does not understand why he was so nervous. The show went flawlessly, everyone laughed when he displayed his character’s wit, and remained enamored by his charm and spirit. Even Eleanor did Rosalind justice, a feat Louis did not believe possible. Simon, the director, is giving them all, cast and crew, a lengthy soliloquy about the prowess of great direction and how together, with a resourceful stage crew and vivacious acting, a power performance can emerge. All Louis wants to do is go find his friends and Harry, but mostly Harry. 

Finally Simon dismisses them to the cast party, Louis feeling ecstatic. He all but runs to the backstage area. When he finally rounds the corner, the first person he sees is Harry, standing just as Louis’ fantasized him with a beautiful bouquet. Louis breaks all sense of dignity and runs towards him. Harry opens his arms and Louis jumps up and wraps his arms around the taller man and pulls him into a great open-mouthed kiss. After what could have been ten minutes or ten hours, Harry puts Louis down and smiles at him. He hands Louis the colorful bouquet. 

“Louis, you were so great. I knew you were talented, but still, you blew me away.”

“Thanks Harry. Thank you so much for coming.” 

Someone clears their throat and Louis looks away from Harry to see Zayn, Liam, Perrie, Niall, and Lou standing behind him. Perrie speaks first. “Oh Tommo, you were splendid! I had no idea you could act like that. I remember when Zayn used to talk about your performances; he made them seem like street acts. I don’t know what the fuck he was on about.”

“That is not true. I told you that Louis is a great actor, like a modern day court jester.” Zayn smiles at Louis, and Louis knows that Zayn’s deprecation is really meant as a statement of admiration. Louis laughs.

“Thanks guys.”

“Great show man, you did wonderfully.”

“Yeah it was aces Tommo.”

“You guys are making me blush,” Louis says semi-seriously. “But seriously, thank you all so much for coming. Did you guys see the refreshments? There is plenty of champagne to go around.”

Harry moves behind Louis and wraps his arms around him, kisses his cheek and whispers into his ear, “I’m proud of you, Louis”

“Thanks Harry. I’m so grateful that you came tonight.” Louis moves to address the rest of the group, “Do you guys want to go the cast party?”

An hour, four champagne glasses, and two tequila shots later, Louis is drunk. More drunk than he has been in a while, Louis is more drunk than he has been since he’s been dating Harry. Harry, Louis really likes Harry, the boy with the beautiful brown curls and emerald green eyes. Louis wants to kiss him, he wants to—

“Tommo, get over here!”

Shit. That’ll be Aiden wanting to do another round of shots with the male leads. He really doesn’t need one. Where is Harry? Louis finally sees him talking with one of the stagehands—Calvin—Louis thinks his name is.

“Harry,” Louis manages to slur out as he approaches the taller man.

“Hi baby. How’re you doing?” Harry gives Casper a sympathetic wave as Louis wraps his arms around him and pulls him away.

“M’ drunk. And Aiden keeps calling me back for more shots. Will you come with me?”

“I’ll go wherever you want me to, Lou.” Harry gives a childish giggle. “Hey, that rhymed.”

“You’re dumb. And you have dimples.”

“You love my dimples.” He smiles as if to prove it’s true. And it is true. “Now, where is this shady Aiden character who gets you drunk?”

“Did I hear my name?” Aiden makes his way into Louis’ blurred line of vision and stops in front of Harry and Louis with two filled shot glasses in his hand.

“Hi, I’m Harry.” Harry is so polite, Louis thinks as he watches the taller man extend his Louis-free arm in a friendly handshake towards Aiden.

“Aiden. Hands are full, mate.”

“Duh! Use your eyes, Harry!” Harry mimics hitting himself in the head with his palm. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Aiden looks down at Harry’s other arm circled around Louis’ waist as Louis clings into him. “Yeah. So, how do you know Louis?”

“We’re good mates, introduced through mutual friends,” Louis says quickly. He and Harry haven’t exactly discussed what their relationship is and Louis doesn’t want to say anything that will scare Harry away. 

“My best mate just had a baby with the woman his best mate used to date,” Harry says slowly, his voice stiff.

Aiden frowns at the pair of them. “That’s quite the tangled web. Shall we do some shots?”

“I’m not sure we need anymore shots. Right, Lou?”

“What are you? His boyfriend?” 

“No,” Louis says without a second thought.

Louis feels Harry tense up at Louis’ blunt response.

Aiden smiles and says, “Well, I guess Louis is free to do shots with whoever he wants, then.” He then extracts Louis from Harry’s side, the younger man not doing or saying anything to protest. Aiden grabs Louis’ hand and pulls him towards the table where the salt and limes are stationed. To Louis’ surprise, Harry follows. Louis thought that Harry was mad at him for his response to Aiden’s questions. 

“So we’re doing shots?” Harry asks.

Aiden drapes his arm around Louis. “Yeah. But I only have two glasses here, so looks like I’m taking mine off of Louis,” Aiden says cheekily. 

Harry doesn’t say anything. Louis notices that his cheeks are reddened, probably with anger at Louis. Louis (nor Harry, it seems) doesn’t want Aiden to do a body shot off of him.

“No Aiden. That’s ok. I don’t need a shot. You and Harry take them. I’ll just watch.” Louis is surprised he manages to get his words out without slurring.

“Now Louis, we can’t have the star of the play not taking a shot. Let’s have you and your friend Harry here do the honors.”

Aiden hands Harry and Louis the shot glasses. Aiden grabs Louis’ hand, licks it, and pours salt. He holds out the saltshaker for Harry to use accordingly.

“Thanks,” Harry murmurs. He turns to Louis. “Cheers.” Without meeting Louis’ eyes, he clinks his their glasses, licks his salt, and downs the shot in record time. He walks away without using a lime. It takes a moment for Louis’ brain to catch up with what happened.

“Come on Tommo, let me do a shot off of you.” His arm around Louis’ waist feels foreign, like it doesn’t belong there.

“What? No I don’t want to. Let’s just do normal shots, here.” Louis licks his salt, takes his shot, and grabs lime slice from the table. He attempts to escape from Aiden’s grip so he can go find Harry, but Aiden won’t have it.

“What are you doing?” he asks while tightening his grip around Louis’ waist.

“I need to go find Harry. Where’d he go?”

“Probably gone to powder his nose. No offense, but he seems like an odd guy, Louis.”

“No. He’s my…my—”

“Friend, from what you’ve told me. Come on, why do you care? Can’t we just have some more shots and then go back to yours?”

“Why would we do that?”

“Come off it, Louis! You’ve been flirting with me all throughout rehearsals. Don’t tell me you don’t remember what happened at Matt’s wrap party last year.”

“I don’t—”

“Remember? You blew me in the toilets and if you hadn’t of passed out, you were going to let me fuck you.”

Louis feels sick. 

“I need to go find Harry. We’re together. He’s my—”

“Boyfriend?” Aiden lets out a harsh laugh. “Louis Tomlinson doesn’t do boyfriends.”

“Fuck off, Aiden. I like him, we’re together.” Louis pushes the other man off of him and walks away to go find Harry without looking back.

Louis can’t find him anywhere. Luckily he sees Perrie, Zayn, and Liam sitting on one of the couches that the actors sit on when they’re backstage. He makes a beeline for them.

“Have you guys seen Harry?” Louis demands.

“He walked that way a little while ago,” Liam supplies, pointing towards the exit door. “He seemed upset,” Liam adds, eying Louis somewhat suspiciously.

“Lou went out to see if he was alright. She’s great at dealing with people’s emotions, especially Harry whenever he’s upset,” Perrie says with an air of pride at the fact that her partner is great at handling emotions.

“I’ve gotta go find him,” Louis declares.

“Did you two have a row or something?” Zayn asks, perceptive as always.

“Uh…not really, I just sort of put my foot in my mouth on accident.”

“How so?” Liam inquires. Apparently he has a protective streak.

“This guy asked us, Harry and me, if we were together and I said no, and then he asked Harry if he was my boyfriend, and I said no again and he sort of acted angry and then stormed off.”

“Who asked you these oh-so-simple questions, Lou?” Zayn asks with a deliberate expression, as if he already knows the answer.

“Um…it was Aiden.”

“That creep that tried to have sex with you when you were practically comatose? Fuck, Louis.”

“I don’t know why I said no. I just didn’t want to freak Harry out or anything.”

“Bullshit Louis, you just didn’t want to freak yourself out.”

Liam speaks up, his voice quiet, “You know how Harry thinks of you, don’t you?”

“I—What?” Louis turns to stare at him, just having registered what he said.

“Harry. Don’t you know how he feels about you? He wouldn’t have been freaked out by you calling him his boyfriend at all.”

Zayn interjects, “Louis has ‘label-phobia’. He didn’t want to freak himself out; it’s nothing to do with Harry. He’s just a prick.” He moves his gaze to Louis. “For god’s sake Louis, man up. You don’t want to date anyone else, or fuck anyone else. Just go tell him.”

“Where is he?”

“Probably outside. Talking to Lou,” Perrie states. 

Louis starts towards to the exit.

He’s outside, in the alleyway on the side of the theater. Louis looks around for Harry and Lou, but doesn’t see them anywhere. Fuck. Louis royally fucked up. He likes Harry so much. He’s so shit at relationships that he ruined his and Harry’s before it even began. Louis turns to walk towards the street. He’d rather go home alone than have to face Zayn and Harry’s friends inside, and he definitely does not want to run into Aiden again. Once on the main walk, Louis can see two figures sitting on a bench about thirty yards away. He sullenly makes his way over to them; Louis can make out Harry and Lou once he gets closer. He can see by the way they are sitting, turned in toward one another, that they are in deep conversation. Louis senses that it is a private discussion, one that he feels embarrassed intruding upon. He swallows his pride, however; he knows how important it is for him to speak with Harry, to apologize to him, to fight for him.

Louis slowly approaches the bench and clears his throat to alert them of his presence before speaking. “Hi.”

Lou glances his way and squints up at him, her expression guarded. “Hi Louis.”

Harry, who had his back to Louis, rotates around to take the older boy in. He doesn’t say anything, but his eyes lock themselves onto Louis’, searching him.

“Can I talk to you? It’s important.”

Lou speaks for Harry. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea right now.” She turns to look at the curly-haired lad. “What do you think, H?”

Harry’s sad eyes continue to search Louis. It kills Louis to know that he caused this. Louis offers Harry an apologetic smile, trying to convey to the younger man that he is here to amend and not to break anymore.

“It’s okay, Lou. You can go back inside if you want,” Harry finally says, his voice small.

“Okay.” She gets up and kisses the top of Harry’s head. “I’ll be inside if you need me.” She gives Louis a suspicious look mirroring the one that Liam gave him earlier. Louis concludes that Harry has some pretty damn protective friends.

“Can I sit down?” Louis asks hesitantly. He doesn’t want to make Harry any more uncomfortable than he already has.

Harry gestures to the bench. “Be my guest.”

Louis feels incredibly awkward. He doesn’t know how to do this.

“Look, Harry. I’m sorry I was such a prick in front of Aiden.”

“What for? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Harry, I told him that we’re just friends, I’d like to think we’re more than that.”

“Would you? It didn’t really seem like you do, Louis.”

“That’s not—Look, I…I’ve never been seriously involved with someone longer than one night before. Since I’ve come out, at least. I like you Harry. I want to keep seeing you, and I want people to know that I am seeing you. I don’t want other men seeing you, and I don’t want to see other men. I don’t want to put a label on it…at least for right now, but I want to date you, exclusively.” Louis, who had been afraid to look at Harry’s face during his soliloquy, finally looks into his emerald orbs, to find them gazing back, with the same searching look. He remains silent. Louis is starting to get concerned. “What do you think about that?” he asks, tentative.

“I don’t understand.”

Louis’ stomach churns. That’s not what he was expecting Harry to say.

“What do you mean?”

“I don’t understand why you said those things to Aiden if you mean anything you just said.”

“I mean them, now. I’m just scared, I’ve never done this before?” his statement comes out as a question.

Harry raises his voice, “Well which is it?”

“What?” Louis exclaims, shocked by the volume of Harry’s question.

“You’re just spouting excuses out. I don’t know which you actually want to use.”

“I’m not giving excuses, I’m being honest. This is brand new to me. I don’t know how to do this.”

“You keep saying that. You keep saying that you don’t know how to do ‘this’, and that ‘this’ is brand new to you. I don’t even know what ‘this’ is, Louis. Apparently we are just ‘good mates’ so if having a good mate is something that’s new to you, I’m not interested.”

“Well that’s the problem, isn’t it?” Louis feels like pulling out his own hair. “We haven’t talked about what this is! I freaked out when he asked if you were my boyfriend! What was I supposed to say?”

Harry remains silent, staring at the ground in front of him. Louis seizes the opportunity to keep speaking. “I get that I shouldn’t have said that you were just my friend. I guess I could have said that you are the guy that I have been seeing for some odd weeks now…I’m sorry.”

Harry still hasn’t said anything or looked up from the ground. They sit in complete silence for what feels like an hour. It cuts into Louis like a knife. He feels physically uncomfortable from it. He can’t take it anymore. He needs to walk.

Louis stands up; finally Harry takes his eyes off of the pavement and looks up at him. “Okay, I see that I’ve fucked up so horribly that you don’t even want to talk to me. I guess I will leave you alone. Even though you haven’t expressed to me what you even want. That’s pretty fucking unfair, but what the hell. Bye.”

He makes it past the Italian restaurant, the mini-market, and the wine bar next to the theater before he hears Harry’s voice. He sounds angry still.

“How can you even say that?” 

Louis stops in his stride. Harry catches up to him.

“How can you fucking say that, Louis?”

“Say what?”

“That I haven’t even told you what I want. I’ve told you every fucking day. God damn it.”

“What have you told me?”

Harry pushes Louis against the wall between the wine bar and the next shop. Louis stands stoically against it, unable to remove his eyes from Harry’s face. 

“That I fucking want you, that I care about you, and that I fucking like you a lot.”

“I’ve told you all of those things too! Why is alright for you to say that and mean it and not me?”

“Because I haven’t gone and let some fuck-boy do body shots off of me!”

“He didn’t even do the shots, I didn’t let him.”

“Well, good for you Louis. Way to tell him that you’re taken.”

“I did! After you walked away I fucking did. But you wouldn’t know that because you walked away without saying anything to me!”

“You didn’t stop me leaving. You were too busy enjoying his arm around your waist. Do you know how much that hurt to watch your face light up when he put his fucking arm around you?”

“That is not true. My face was flushed because I was fucking drunk, I could hardly walk straight.”

“Well why did you come out here then?”

“To tell you that I don't want to see anyone else, but then I bear my heart and soul to you and you don’t even believe me! You expect so much from me and I don’t even know what you want. It’s easier for me to deal with someone like Aiden because he tells me what he wants!”

“What does that mean?”

“He wanted to fuck me. But I told him I was taken, by you, you asshole. But you don’t even tell me what you want!”

For a moment they just stare into each other’s eyes, breathing heavily, faces full of color. Louis has laid it all out on the table; if Harry wants it, he can have it. He’s still fucking angry that Harry is so dramatic and takes the stupid remarks that Louis makes seriously, and still livid that Harry expects Louis to pick up on relationship subtleties and perfectly interpret them. He’s never even been in a proper relationship before. How is he supposed to know? With his thoughts forming, Louis finds a coherent argument and begins to shout again.

“You act like I should understand every fucking hint you throw out. How the hell should I understand that you want to be exclusive when you don’t fucking say it! You’re so self-righteous—”

He’s cut off by Harry’s lips crushing madly against his own. Harry digs his hands into Louis’ hips as he pries Louis’ mouth open with his tongue, demanding entrance. Louis, whose brain needed a few seconds to catch up again, kicks into overdrive, opening his lips to deepen the kiss and bringing his hands to tangle into Harry’s hair, which he knows drives the taller man mad. He then pulls Harry closer, so that the taller man’s body is literally pinning him against the wall. Louis feels every contour of Harry’s body, including the outline of his cock in his jeans. When Louis goes to suck a love bite onto Harry’s neck, he feels Harry’s dick twitch in interest. The feeling makes Louis moan. God he is already getting hard. Harry drives him absolutely crazy. They break apart, needing air.

“Fuck Louis, I want you so much. You drive me fucking crazy.”

“I want you too, I want to take you and fuck you so hard into the mattress, I want to make you scream my name when you come, make you forget any—”

Harry crushes his lips into Louis’ again. They kiss wildly again for a few minutes. When Harry begins to palm the outline of Louis’ cock over his jeans, Louis’ breath hitches.

He pulls back. “Let’s get home, bed, fuck.”

“Fuck, yes,” Harry says before sucking onto Louis’ pulse point.

Louis kicks off against the wall and drags Harry down the street to find a taxi to take them back to his.  
By the time they get back to Louis flat, Louis is fully hard in his jeans. They spent the entire cab ride making out in the back seat. How the cab driver didn’t throw them out at the first traffic light, Louis will never know. Harry throws a wad of cash at the driver as they get out while Louis moves with lighting speed to unlock the front door. Harry rushes behind. Louis holds the door open for him and grabs his hand and literally runs up two flights of stairs to his floor. Luckily, his apartment is second next to the staircase. By the time Harry finishes climbing the second flight, Louis manages to get the door open.

“Jesus, Louis. Is someone a little excited?” Harry laughs. 

“Get in here.” Louis grabs Harry by his fucking ridiculous shirt and pulls him inside.

Louis jerks Harry into him and begins kissing him again, biting on his bottom lip, and pulling the pair of them towards his bedroom. Once there, Louis thrusts Harry against the wall and begins fumbling with the button on his jeans. Harry gets the hint and begins to unbutton his shirt. Louis gets his jeans undone and pulls them down, allowing his cock to spring forth, already flushed and hard, waiting to be touched. Louis removes his own shirt and pulls his own jeans and pants off. Louis takes hold of Harry’s cock, eliciting a deep moan from Harry. Louis slides his hand down Harry’s dick, thumb stroking over the slit and collecting the pre-cum there to make the slide of his hand easier. Harry clutches Louis’ shoulders and nearly moans again.

“No. Don’t want to come that way. Want you to fuck me. Please.”

Louis squeezes the base of his cock and kisses him hard, swiping his tongue against his bottom lip.

“Get into bed.”

Harry obeys. Louis walks over to his night table and opens the top drawer and pulls out lube and condoms. Louis crawls onto the bed until he’s covering Harry with his body as best he can with the size difference. He holds Harry’s wrists pinned to the bed, and he leans down to capture his lips in another kiss. He takes hold of Harry’s cock once more, to offer some friction. Harry moans again.

“Lou, please. Please fuck me.”

“Okay.”

Louis takes the lube and coats two fingers before leaving the uncapped bottle next to the pillow on which Harry lays. He crawls backwards until his head is even with Harry’s pelvis and he spreads Harry’s arse cheeks apart. Louis rubs a lube-sticky finger against his hole while he bends down and runs his tongue along the underside vein of Harry’s cock. Harry moans loudly as Louis circles his rim. Louis pushes his first finger inside of him and Harry fists into the sheets. Louis quickly adds his second finger and then the third, curling them and rubbing them against Harry’s prostate, making the younger man arch his back.

“M’ ready,” Harry releases another moan, which goes straight to Louis’ dick. “Fuck me already, please.”

Louis’ dick is pulsing with need. He couldn’t be more on board with Harry’s request. Louis extracts his fingers when he thinks Harry is ready, resulting in a whimper from Harry. Louis does quick work with opening the condom, rolling it onto him, and slicking himself with lube. He lines himself at Harry’s entrance and slowly pushes in. It takes a minute until he’s all the way inside. Louis fills Harry up, and it’s the most amazing thing he’s ever felt, Harry is so tight. He’s never felt so connected to another person, an intimacy that only true affection can afford. For a moment, Louis remains still, deep inside of Harry. He then pulls out, and pushes back in, ripping moans from both of them.

“Fuck, Lou, Louis,” Harry gasps.

Louis moves inside of him, shifting the angle slightly with each thrust, trying to find the right angle to hit Harry’s spot. After one such thrust, Harry lets out a louder cry of his name and throws his head back with closed eyes. Louis found it.

“Harry, fuck. So tight, so good. Fuck.”

Harry moans yet again. “Harder, Lou. Please, harder, fuck me harder.”

Louis can’t say no to Harry. Louis takes a hold under Harry’s knees, pressing them towards the younger man’s chest, to allow him better access. Louis picks up his speed, slamming into Harry repeatedly as he chases his own orgasm, making sure to hit Harry’s prostate with each stroke. They’re both gasping, muttering, and moaning. Louis’ mind is blurred. He’s in ecstasy with how good this is, how close he is. Harry has sneaked his hand over his thighs, and is pumping his own cock furiously, obviously close as well.

“I’m gonna—” Harry grunts, head thrown back as much as his position will allow, “Fuck, I’m gonna come.”

Louis doubles his efforts as he thrusts into him. With a cry, the younger man starts coming, spurting pearly white onto his own chest. The look of Harry while he comes is enough to push Louis over the edge. He comes a moment later, and riding out his orgasm while Harry comes down. Afterwards, he pulls out and wraps the condom and reaches over Harry to grab tissues to wipe down Harry’s abdomen. He then lays back down and pulls the younger boy into him, kissing Harry’s shoulder.

“I’m not even kidding, that was the best sex I’ve ever had.”

“Mmm. Want to date me exclusively?” Harry asks, sounding already half asleep.

Louis giggles softly. “Sure. Now, go to sleep baby.” He kisses Harry’s shoulder once more before letting his head reach the pillow.


	6. Chapter 6

The next two weeks pass by in a blur of romance, pleasure, and Harry. Louis can’t remember the last time in his life he’s been this happy. In the mornings, he wakes up in Harry’s arms, basking in the younger man’s warmth. He gets up and makes Harry tea and kisses him goodbye when he leaves for work. Harry meets Louis at the pub when he closes or after his shift is done, and walks him home. On the rare nights the two of them don’t spend together, Louis lays awake texting the other man, telling him how much he wishes that they were together. On one of these nights, when Louis had been going on and on about how he would ravish Harry and fuck him into oblivion if he was in his bed right now, Harry actually shows up at half-three, and Louis stays true to his word. The next morning is rather sleepy for the pair of them.

The morning after the As You Like It opening, Louis and Harry both got an earful from their friends that they so graciously left the cast party without any parting words. Liam, the worrywart, had expected the worst and thought that they had been mugged or kidnapped or murdered. Zayn and Niall reassured Liam that the two of them had made up and gone home. That didn’t stop Zayn from calling Louis the next day and telling him off for leaving him to fend for himself with Perrie, Lou, and a roomful of gay actors and inebriated actresses. Louis told Zayn that he was glad that he spent some more time with Liam, Niall, Lou, and Perrie, because they are going to be at least semi-permanent fixtures in their lives, as he had patched things up with Harry and agreed not to see other people. Zayn asked Louis how long until he and Harry would be married, and whether or not he would be the best man. Louis shut up about the forced bonding after that.

One thing’s for sure though, Louis shares Zayn’s feeling of discomfort with Lou Teasdale. While Louis could sense both Liam and Lou’s protectiveness over Harry, Louis felt as though all was forgiven in the former’s eyes and that the lad trusted Louis with his friend’s heart. The same could not be said for Lou however. He could still sense her guarded, suspicious eyes on him whenever he and Harry would go to their home for dinner or meet up with them somewhere in the city. 

As You Like It concluded, Harry having attended every one of Louis’ shows, which inevitably brought along the meeting between Harry and Louis’ mum and stepdad on the night of the last show. Harry and Louis spent even more time together now, Louis meeting Harry for lunch everyday, and accompanying him on day trips to the outskirts of London or to other cities for photo shoots.

On Sunday evening, Harry invites Louis to dinner at his sister Gemma’s house. Louis is overwhelmed with a sense of nervous excitement. He knows how much Gemma means to Harry, and how much it means for him to be introducing Louis to her. He also knows how much he values the opinions of his sister and mom, probably more than anyone’s, Louis thinks. Louis knows how detrimental it would be to make a bad impression with Gemma, who would then report to Anne, her and Harry’s mother, about how stupid Harry’s new boyfriend is. Louis decides to dress casually, wearing a thin grey jumper, his classic black jeans, and black Adidas. He now sits on a ledge outside of the Mornington Cresent station waiting for Harry to meet him. After a few minutes of people watching, Louis sees Harry approach him, looking like a model with his hair pulled back in a bun and ray bans on his face. Louis’ jaw drops. He doesn’t think he’ll ever get over how attractive he finds Harry. Harry’s face lights up in a dazzling smile when he lays eyes on Louis. Louis jumps up off the wall and jogs to Harry, who in turn wraps the shorter man into a warm embrace. Their lips meet in a short but intimate kiss, shared just between the two of them, hidden by Harry’s arms.

“Hi.” Harry smiles as he pulls back from the kiss.

Louis nuzzles deeper into Harry’s embrace. “You look so hot in your sunglasses, babe,” Louis admits. 

Harry laughs, a beautiful throaty sound. “You look nice, as well. Let’s go. I’m hungry. I didn’t have a hot date at lunch today.”

“I’m sorry baby, I had to meet Zayn. He’s being needy since I spend all my time with you.”

Harry releases Louis from the warmth of his arms, only to grab his hand and begin walking in the direction of Gemma’s home. After a few minutes of walking, Harry leads them off the busy road to a side street, filled with quaint looking town homes.

“So, have you told Gemma and Liam all about me?” Gemma’s husband and Harry’s childhood best mate happen to share a first name.

“Yeah, I’ve told them all about this annoying guy that won’t leave me alone.”

Louis pouts. “Heeeey.” Louis told Harry how nervous he is about meeting Gemma so he doesn’t appreciate the younger man teasing him.

“I’m just kidding, Lou. I told her about how brilliant you are, how you make me laugh harder than anyone I’ve ever known, how talented at acting you are, how you can’t go to bed without a cup of tea, which is probably the reason you talk in your sleep…and of course, I told her how attractive you are.” Harry lists each item with a squeeze to Louis' hand. 

Louis’ pout becomes more pronounced at that. “So you’ve talked me up so much that there’s no way I’ll match the image she has of me in her mind.”

“Louis, stop worrying. Gemma will love you.”

Louis decides to take Harry’s word for it. They stop in front of a red brick townhouse and walk up the steps. Harry rings the bell. A few moments later Louis hears a woman’s voice bellowing “Li! Harry and his new boyfriend are here!”

She opens the door and Louis is met with a pair of warm brown eyes. He instantly recognizes Gemma from Harry’s photo all those weeks ago. She smiles kindly at him, before Harry surges forward and envelops his sister in a massive hug.

“Oi! H, I want to meet your new man.”

“Gem, don’t you want a Harry Hug?”

“Of course I do, but I want to meet Louis! Gerroff me!”

“Alright, alright. Oh, hello Liam!” Harry says in greeting as he steps through the threshold and Gemma’s husband comes into the foyer.

“Come in here.” Gemma puts her hand around Louis and pulls him inside before shutting the front door. “It’s so nice to finally meet you! Harry hasn’t shut up about you for months! Every time we’ve talked it’s been: Louis has the prettiest blue eyes! Louis is so funny, Gemma he told the funniest story about a pug—”

“Shut up, Gem!” Harry says, his cheeks aflame with embarrassment.

Louis gives a genuine, eye-crinkling laugh and says, “Awww, Harry.” He reaches forth to give Harry’s adorable cheeks a well-deserved squeeze.

Louis finally extends a hand to Gemma. He can be charming when he wants to be. “It’s good to meet you too. I know how much you mean to Harry so I can’t believe he has deemed me worthy enough to meet you.” His tone is dry enough that his statement is viewed as humorous rather than brown nosing. After all of the introductions are made, the four of them make their way into the Crowe residence and into the sitting room, where Gemma gestures for Louis and Harry to sit down. Liam kisses his wife and tells the group he will be in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on dinner. Gemma asks Harry and Louis if they would like anything to drink. Predictably, Harry asks Gemma for a specific label of merlot, while Louis asks for whatever Harry is having.

The night progresses and Louis thinks that it’s going well enough; he told a story that had Harry in tears and Gemma ready to squirt wine from her nose. Once they moved into the dining room, Liam served delicious lamb chops with a balsamic reduction. Gemma selected the wine she paired for them to eat with the dish. Louis tells the pair that they could open a restaurant, Liam as the chef and Gemma as the sommelier. And Harry can be the hostess, Louis adds on as an afterthought. Louis’ cheek at Harry earns him laughter from both Gemma and Liam, and a mock pout from Harry. Liam and Gemma are intrigued at the story of how Louis and Harry met. ‘Well my best mate Zayn used to be in a relationship with the partner of Harry’s baby’s mother.’

It’s a little later into dinner that Liam asks Harry if he’s excited for the Leeds Festival coming up next weekend.

“Yeah, I'm really excited. Feels like I’ve had the tickets forever, thanks to you of course.” Harry turns to look at Louis who is sitting on his other side. “Liam is able to get me tickets for a discounted price because his best friend owns a restaurant that operate some of the food trucks.”

“That’s sick,” Louis offers, feeling a little embarrassed. He had no knowledge that Harry was going to Leeds. It seems like something he would have mentioned.

“So Louis, Harry tells us that you are quite the actor. What other plays have you done besides As You Like It?”

The dinner passes smoothly with no other mention of Leeds. By the time Harry and Louis have finished their tiramisu and dessert wine, Louis is confident he’s received the Gemma Styles-Crowe stamp of approval. With Gemma’s parting kiss on Louis’ cheek and Liam’s enthusiastic hug, Louis almost feels like a member of a couple on the eve of their engagement, celebrating with the future in-laws. Gemma and Harry linger in the door for a few minutes, no doubt discussing Gemma’s interpretation of Louis. Louis can’t imagine her saying anything ill of him with how lovely the evening went. Before Louis can truly worry about the nature of Gemma and Harry’s discourse, Harry bids his elder sister goodnight and meanders down the steps toward Louis. Louis waves goodbye to Gemma before she shuts the door. Once down at street level, Harry’s smile shines bright to Louis.

“See? I told you, you had not to worry about. Gemma loves you, and Liam thinks you’re a riot.”

“I’m charming. Don’t you know?”

Harry leans in to plant a quick peck on Louis’ lips. “Yes, I am aware.” He takes Louis’ hand as they begin to walk back to the tube.

“Do you want to come to mine?” Harry asks after a few moments of silence. It’s as if he can hear Louis’ brain working, the thoughts inside his head running rampant.

“Sure.”

“Hey...what’s up?”

“It’s really nothing. It's just, why didn’t you tell me about Leeds?”

“Oh.” Harry sounds surprised. “Um. Well we’ve had the tickets since before you and I met. It’s me, Niall, Liam, and some lads from uni.” Harry’s eyes leave Louis and travel down to his feet. “I, uh…I actually have an extra ticket because Greg bailed. I was going to offer it to you, but I was afraid of freaking you out after the whole opening night…thing.”

“You wanted to offer it to me?”

“Well, yeah. But I know it’s a lot and if you don’t want to go that’s fine. I just thought it would be—”

“I’d love to.”

“What?”

“I’d love to go to Leeds with you and all of your pretentious art friends, and Niall and Liam.”

“Really?” Harry looks so genuinely pleased. Louis could melt.

“Of course…a whole weekend sharing a sleeping bag with you? Who would say no to that?”

.

The next Thursday, Louis finds himself outside of Harry’s flat at noon, waiting with Harry and Liam for Niall to bring his car around. The four of them, plus Liam’s girlfriend Sophia, will be caravanning with several of Harry and Niall’s friends from uni. Once they get out of the city they’ll stop at a petrol station and meet the other cars. Louis is a little nervous about meeting Harry’s school friends. He suspects they will be less like Niall and Liam and more like Harry’s artsy side, which Louis doesn’t feel like he has a lot in common with. Sure, Louis loves movies, plays, and musicals, but talk about painting or photography or design and Louis knows shit. Even music, Louis feels a little bit at a loss when Harry talks about bands or other artists he likes. Louis is excited to watch Kendrick Lamar, Alt-J ∆, Bastille, Metallica, Mumford and Sons, Deadmau5, and Porter Robinson; his sixth-form self is also very excited to watch Panic! At the Disco, Simple Plan, and All Time Low, but he will not admit that in front of Harry’s friends. He shared his secret desires with Liam though, and the lad said that he would accompany Louis to those shows. Some of the shows that Harry’s been looking forward to, on the other hand, have Louis clueless: Hippo Campus?, 99 Souls?, Jamie XX? Louis has never felt more foolish in front of a guy than the moment Harry asks him if he’s excited to watch Jamie T. How many bloody Jamie acts are there? Louis had asked Harry, which caused the younger man to erupt in a fit of giggles.

“I’m so excited for you to meet Nick and my other mates.”

“Who all is going again?”

Harry spouts a list of names that thoroughly overwhelms Louis. Louis really is losing his mind when it comes to Harry. He’s never been one to be apprehensive at the thought of meeting a new group, the extrovert that he is, but Harry makes him want to impress his friends. He wants to be able to engage in intellectual conversation with them, to make Harry proud of his choice in mate. Louis’ never once regretted his choice not to attend uni, but the prospect of meeting all of Harry’s highbrow friends makes him feel quite inadequate. 

Once they get on the road and stop to pick up Sophia, Louis feels a little more at ease. Sophia is kind and warm, asking Louis all about what acts he wants to see. When Louis expresses his lack of knowledge about a lot of the acts, she rolls her eyes and reassures him that not all Leeds attendees will have as pretentious taste as Harry and his friends.

“I don’t know where I get this reputation of being pretentious, I just try to be open-minded, is all,” Harry shouts from the front seat.

“Except when things clash with your cultured taste,” Sophia retorts.

“I’m wounded you think these things of me Sophia. Louis is going to come away from this weekend with an artistic education,” Harry says as he reaches back to grab Louis’ hand, kiss it, and wrap it in his own.

Louis’ heart warms at that. He loves when Harry let’s him know that he is going to take care of him.

“Ah, Hazza. As long as I have you by my side I don’t care about your pretension.”

“Thanks a lot, Lou,” he says back, but smiles all the same and kisses Louis’ hand again.

Once they’re out of the city, they stop at the agreed upon petrol station in Hatfield to meet up with the other two cars. They seem to be the last to arrive, as Louis observes a group of men and women all standing around. They pull up and Niall rolls down his front window and shouts at the group, “LEEEEDSS!!!!!!” The group turns to stare at their car with some slight nodding and clapping at Niall’s greeting. The Irishman then stops the car and gets out.

“This weekend’s gonna be sick!” Niall hugs and shakes the hands with several of the group as the others emerge from the car. When Harry exits the car he waits for Louis to get out so he can take his hand and lead him over to the group, Liam and Sophia exiting through the other door.

“Styles, welcome,“ a tall, coiffed man says to Harry as they appear from the other side of the car.

“Hello Grimmy, everyone, this is Louis.”

Louis is met with a chorus of hellos.

“Hello,” he says a little timidly.

“Louis, this is Nick,” he gestures to the coiffed man who had greeted Harry, “Jack,” the brown-haired, bearded man waves at Louis, “Aimee,” the platinum blonde woman pressed into Nick’s side says, ‘hey,’ “Julian,” the most indie-hipster man Louis has ever met smiles at Louis behind his sunglasses and shoulder-length, scraggly brown hair, “Caroline,” a tall ombre-haired woman looks at Louis with suspicious eyes, giving Lou Teasdale a run for her money, “John,” a goofy man wearing a hat waves at Louis with a grin, “Laura,” a blonde-woman whose arm currently rests on Niall’s shoulder waves, “and Ashton,” Harry gestures to the final man who stands next to Niall’s friend.

“Thanks for the introduction. There’s no way I’ll remember all those, but hopefully by the end of the weekend, I’ll have one or two of them.” While Louis is completely ignorant about many musicians, he’s met with a sudden inspiration to use his sense of humor to charm Harry’s mates. Thankfully he’s met with a couple chuckles and plenty of smiles. Louis feels himself physically relax.

“Shall we get back on the road now that this lot has finally arrived?” the one Louis thinks is called Jack asks.

“It’s Harry’s fault we’re late. He couldn’t decide which pair of his black skinny jeans to pack.”

This time, Louis is met with genuine laughter from most of the group. The suspicious eyed one, Caroline, cracks a smile, but then narrows her eyes.

“Ha-ha. Very funny Louis, but you know that you were the one who couldn’t decide which jeans to bring! It’s okay though, you can always borrow mine. I packed three pairs.”

“You are so giving, Harry,” Louis looks at him with mock heart-eyes. 

“Ugh. Let’s get on the road before they start snogging,” Niall supplies.

The trip to Leeds is around four hours, plenty of time for some road trip bonding between Louis and Niall, Liam, and Sophia. Louis knows that he genuinely likes Sophia within the first hour of the trip. She’s beautiful, and one of the most down-to-earth people Louis has ever met. It’s as if her beauty has instilled in her a deep desire to truly get to know every person she meets. Louis’ thoughts jump to Liam; about how caring and protective he is over Harry, and to Niall, who Louis knows has supported Harry so much over the years. Harry has such amazing people in his life, who care so much for him, and whom he cares so much for. He’s opened up his life and made room for Louis. He’s incorporated Louis into all of his relationships and that mean so much to him. Harry is this incredibly loving, beautiful man. Louis imagines that his heart is made literally of gold and rainbows and Louis loves it. 

Louis loves him. Louis is in love with him. Louis Tomlinson is in love with Harry Styles. Fuck. Louis Tomlinson doesn’t fall in love. But then again, Louis Tomlinson doesn’t do exclusive dating, or meeting the family, or shagging more than once, or meeting the friends. What the fuck? When did Louis fall this deeply? When did he allow this weird, cross-dressing, curly-haired, man-child to cut through his rough exterior? Louis is in deep. He considers his life for the past few months since he met Harry. His life has drastically changed, almost as if it now revolves completely around Harry. Louis can’t even remember what his life felt like before meeting him. He can’t go back to that place, a place without romance and adventure. His love life was entirely mundane before: get drunk, shag fit men, and never let your heart into the equation. Harry changed that. Louis is in love, and he doesn’t have any clue what to do with that information. It’s around hour three that he makes this sweeping conclusion. Liam, sitting in the middle, has fallen asleep on Sophia’s shoulder. Sophia sits awake, chatting lazily with Niall, asking him about his brother’s baby. Harry has been stroking Louis’ hand draped over the window rest for the past hour. He stares out the window intently and appears as deep in thought as Louis had been. Maybe he’s coming to the same conclusions about Louis. Louis hopes that he is. It’s as Louis wonders about Harry’s thoughts that the younger man kisses and releases his hand, and turns to Niall.

“How much longer?”

“I expect we’re almost there. Don’t know if ya’ve noticed, but Grimmy drives like a fuckin’ maniac. He’s cut the trip down by about half.”

“You calling someone a maniac behind the wheel is alarming.”

“Grim makes me look like my grandma, I tell you.”

Niall’s prediction is a bit of an exaggeration. They make it to the campground in a little under an hour. Once they arrive, Louis feels stupidly nervous about setting up the tent. He’s never been camping before, and this is his first music festival, so he has little to no knowledge when it comes to tents. Luckily, Harry takes control of his and Louis’ tent setup. He tells Louis exactly what to do. Harry and Louis, and Liam and Sophia, the two couples, both will be sleeping in two-person tents. The rest of the group will be sharing two five-person tents. Louis does not envy any of them. He gets to sleep snuggled up next to the man he loves in a sleeping bag for the next four nights. They get their tent up quickly enough, then turn to assist the others with their respective tents and the common campsite equipment. Louis and Harry aid Aimee and Nick with the canopy. Niall and Caroline get out the table and camp stove. Once the table is adjusted, Niall quickly retrieves his beer from the trunk and pops one open almost immediately.

“Louis do you want to grab the sleeping bags out of the car and put them in the tent?” Harry asks him.

“Sure, love,” Louis says with a fond smile plastered across his face. God. He may as well have ‘I’M IN LOVE WITH HARRY!’ tattooed on his forehead.

An hour later, after having successfully set up their various campsites, the caravan group decides to ‘embrace Leeds,’ which really means they began to drink and smoke. Sitting around the campsite with a beer and a spliff in either one of his hands, Louis finally feels at ease with the group. He’s got Harry, his beautiful basically-boyfriend on one side and one of Harry’s friends who he thinks is called John on the other. Niall is sitting across from him strumming on his guitar, reminiscing with the lad called Ashton and the hipster looking one about their uni-era band, 5 Semesters of Summer. Ashton, Louis learns, is a killer drummer, ‘best drummer you’ll ever see’ according to Niall; and Julian, a songwriting genius, ‘he could rally Lennon.’ Niall, Louis learned in the last few weeks, quit his job working in finance to pursue a career in music. He told Louis he never feels more alive than when he strums his guitar or watches someone else perform. Louis told him that he could relate to the feeling, having the same emotion towards acting. Louis watches the former band mates in awe-inspiration. He wishes he had Niall’s guts and could quit bartending to focus on acting. Louis turns to tell Harry this only to find the younger man staring at him fondly.

“S’there something on my face?”

Harry simply smiles, “You’re beautiful, Lou.”

Louis feels warm and light everywhere, “Thanks Harry. You’re incredible. I—”

“Oi! Harry, Louis, want to play?”

It’s the woman called Aimee, and she just quite effectively broke up their little moment, wanting to start some sort of American group drinking game on the table. Which is probably for the best, considering what he was about to reveal to Harry. Louis doesn’t know if he’s ready for that.

Louis turns to Harry with a smile and nods.

“Sure,” Harry says for the both of them.

It’s a few hours later and Louis is drunk. He’s definitely drunker than he planned on getting at all this weekend, but they played three rounds of that group drinking game and then they played truth-or-shot, which turned ugly when Louis was asked if he’d ever had sex with more than one person in a night. He chose to take a shot rather than answering, which led most of the group to ask him different variations of the question, trying to get an answer. In the end, he ended up having to take five shots, which was significantly more shots than anyone else in the group. However, Louis is confident that the rest of the group is just as drunk as he is. At least he’s not passed out shirtless in a camp chair with crude writings all his body like Niall is. Unfortunately, Louis does have a tendency to over share when he’s had one too many drinks. He’s spent the last thirty minutes gushing to Aimee and Laura about his newfound love for Harry.

“It’s when I realized that I-m in love with him. I just—he’s the best person I know.”

“Aww,” both women coo.

“You two are the absolute cutest,” Laura embellishes.

“I never thought I’d see the day,” Aimee adds.

Louis is confused. She has no knowledge of Louis’ prior lack of romantic entanglements.

“What do you mean?” Louis asks, Laura’s bamboozled look somewhat mirroring Louis’ thoughts.

“I never thought I would see Harry like this. I mean it’s crazy, when he was with Xander he was ne—“

“Aimee.” Laura gives Aimee a truly scandalized look, as if she can’t believe the other woman would blurt out such a statement.

Louis is even more confused than he was a moment ago. He seems to be alone in his confused state however, as Laura’s face now shows frustration and outrage at her friend.

“Who is—”?

“What I’m trying to say,” Aimee cuts Louis off before he can get his question out, “is that I love to see Harry so happy, and I know that you’re making him happier than I’ve seen him in a long time.” She gives Louis a squeeze before turning to walk to the car.

Laura yawns. “Well, I’m off to bed. See you in the morning Louis.”

Louis is bewildered. What just happened? Who is Xander?

.

Louis wakes up with Harry’s arms wrapped tightly around his body, the younger man’s lips pressed into the back of Louis’ neck. They’re both naked, the two of them having drunkenly fooled around in their shared sleeping bag the night before. Louis smiles at the memory of Harry drunkenly jerking Louis off while sucking a bite into his neck. It was a little sloppy, but he got off just the same. Louis returned the favor by giving Harry, ‘the best camp blowjob of his life.’ Louis nuzzles up to Harry, which elicits a sleepy moan from the younger man. Louis can feel Harry’s morning wood pressing up against his bum, and Louis thinks that they could have the best camp sex of their lives, but that might not be a good idea. Instead, Louis turns around, trying his best to keep Harry sedated. He wraps his arms around the other boy so that the two of them are knotted tightly together, rather intimately, Louis thinks. Louis begins to smooth his hand down the curve of Harry’s back, up and down. He can feel the younger man shifting under his touch, pressing up against him, and again Louis can feel Harry’s length, hardening even more.

“Louis,” Harry breathes.

“Yeah?”

“That feels nice.”

Louis continues the rhythm, his fingertips running over Harry’s spine.

Louis loses himself in the touch of Harry’s naked skin, the sensory overload of the feel of the goose pimples against his fingertips. His hands brush up against the curve of his bum and Harry’s breath catches in his throat.

“You need to stop that. I’m getting—” Harry actually moans as Louis’ fingers slip around his bum again.

“What?” Louis moves his hands to smooth down Harry’s front. He’s inches away from his dick when they receive a very rude awakening from Niall.

“GEEET UP!” The Irishman literally unzips their tent and sticks his head in.

“What the fuck Niall?” Harry sounds legitimately angry.

“Did I interrupt some morning sex? Oh, I’m sorry, but it’s Leeds bitch!”

Louis just laughs. He reaches over to Harry and kisses him, a deep open-mouthed kiss, which causes Harry to whimper a little at the reminder of his hardened cock. Louis takes pity on him. He rises, grabbing his pants, and zips their tent back so that he can finish the job.

A couple hours of profuse hydration later, the entire group is sat around in various camp chairs or in Niall’s case, sprawled across the middle of the tarp. Liam, it turns out, is brilliant with a camp stove and he cooks up a proper camp fry-up for the slightly hungover group. 

“Who’s playing today?” Niall asks to no one in particular.

“Kendrick Lamar,” Louis says.

“Glass Animals will be sick,” Nick proclaims at the same time, “and Jamie XX.”

“I’m most excited for Little Comets.”

The group spends the next hour or so coming up with the acts they all want to see. Louis plans on sticking by Harry’s side all evening, because he loves him and also because Kendrick Lamar is the only person he really cares to see, whom the whole group is going to watch together.

The morning passes by rather quickly after that, the group having recuperated and full of energy from Liam’s delicious stove meal.

Nick, Aimee, Caroline, and Jack all head to the venue rather early. Liam and Sophia venture in together a little while later, saying they want some alone time. The remaining five make there way to the venue in the mid-afternoon, Harry holding Louis’ hand the entire walk. Louis couldn’t be happier; walking hand in hand with Harry venturing into a music festival with some of the most inviting people Louis has ever met. Once they get into the venue, Louis observes a great number of what he would describe as art exhibit structures, tents, food stands, and more people than Louis has seen in his entire life. It’s brilliant. The rest of the afternoon and evening is a blur of excitement, including smoking spliffs with Harry’s friends and getting drunk off of the vodka they snuck in their backpacks. When it gets cold in the evening, a very intoxicated Louis clings close to Harry’s side, enjoying it immensely when the younger man clings his arms around Louis’ front and dances to Jamie T with Louis all wrapped up in his arms. After Kendrick Lamar, Louis is ready to go to bed. Harry, on the other hand, wants to stay to watch some other band. Very reluctantly, Louis extracts himself from Harry and goes back to the campsite with Sophia, Liam, and Laura. 

Saturday passes in the same sort of sensational blur as Friday, but Louis is more excited for this day because some of his younger self’s favorite bands happen to be playing. Louis is surprised to find himself joined by Nick, Jack, Aimee, Caroline, and Harry at the Simple Plan show. He had been counting on just going with Liam. Most of the group wants to leave early to go watch Django Django—that is the name of a band? Louis wonders madly—but Harry sticks by Louis’ side. Louis remains at the main stage for the last four acts: All Time Low, Bastille, Alt-J, and Mumford & Sons. Alt-J were incredible. When they sang “Taro”, Louis actually had chills. It was Mumford & Sons that stole his heart though, just like Harry, Louis thinks. When they close with “I Will Wait”, Louis feels actual tears in his eyes. Wow, how drunk is he? By the time the group makes it back to their campsite, everyone is chatting excitedly about how great the acts were, Louis actively contributing. 

Sunday is another day that Louis is naïve to most of the acts, opting to stick by Harry’s throughout most of the day. The group decides to smoke the rest of their weed at the venue and by nighttime Louis is pretty high. He’s wrapped up in Harry’s arms again and he feels like he’s on fire all the places Harry’s touching him. His heart is beating intensely in his chest and he feels like he could run twenty miles without stopping, as long as he has Harry by his side. They’re watching a group called Catfish and the Bottlemen and Louis is so in love with him. He feels like he could do anything as long as Harry was with him. Louis adjusts himself in Harry’s arms so that he can turn around and face the other man, and it’s just the two of them. The other people in the crowd don’t matter. It’s just Harry and Louis. Harry looks down and sees Louis’ blazing stare pointing up at him.

“What’s up Lou?” Harry asks dumbly.

“I love you,” Louis admits, shamelessly.

“What?” Harry looks incredulous.

“I love you, Harry. I’m in love with you.”

Harry’s face lights up and Louis thinks there may be tears pooling in his eyes. He reaches down and cups Louis’ face in his hands. When he brings their lips together in an intimate kiss, Louis feels fireworks.

It’s at Metallica later that Louis remembers his Friday night conversation with Laura and Aimee. It’s the only show besides Mumford & Sons and Kendrick Lamar that the entire group watches together. Louis stands hand in hand with Harry, still feeling on fire from having confessed his love. Caroline stands on Harry’s other side. She alone of Harry’s friends seems to dislike Louis. Whatever, Louis thinks, they are in love and there’s nothing she can do about it. 

When the opening licks of “One” start to sound out, a very drunk Jack turns around excitedly to face Harry and Caroline.

He lets out a roaring laugh and says through dead eyes and slurred words, “Fuck. D’you guys remember Xander and Harry hosted Guitar Hero tourney and fuckin’ Z tried to play thison expert. I miss that tosser. I wish he was here right now. Caroline, why didn’t you invite him?”

Caroline looks over at Harry and Louis with a seemingly disgusted look on her face.

“Uh…that would’ve been pretty awkward, yeah?”

“He’s comin’ next year.” Jack turns around.

Caroline whacks him over the head and moves away to give Louis and Harry some space, which apparently they need.

Louis notices that Harry’s hand has gone limp in his own; he lets it fall lifeless by Harry’s side. Harry’s eyes have gone a little wide and his mouth is pressed into a hard line.

“Harry?”

Harry turns to look at Louis without meeting his eyes. “Yeah?”

“Who’s Xander?”

Harry doesn’t say anything. After an extremely tense twenty seconds, Louis speaks again.

“Is he...he’s your ex, right? Aimee said something on Friday.” Louis stares at his feet. “It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it. It would’ve been naïve of me to assume you don’t have any exes. I mean, look at you, who wouldn’t want to be your boyfriend? I just hope that you know that I…I want to be that for you, Harry. I love you.” He looks back at Harry’s face into his inscrutable eyes, which are finally meeting his. “And it’s okay if you don’t want to be…you know, my boyfriend,” he concludes, extremely vulnerably. Louis has never felt more naked in his life, and he’s wearing a jumper and a mac.

Harry surprises him with a rough kiss. “I would love to be your boyfriend, Louis.”

The rest of the evening is spent ignorantly basking in his boyfriend’s warmth.

.

The next morning is bittersweet. Louis is excited to get back to London so that he can shower and eat something that wasn’t cooked on a campfire. At the same time however, Louis can’t believe the weekend is over. He had one of the best weekends of his life at Leeds, and he’s happier than he can ever remember being in a long time. He has a gorgeous boyfriend whom he loves and that he’s pretty sure loves him back. As the group starts to say their goodbyes and finishes packing all of the cars, Louis is surprised to see a hurt looking Jack and a surly-faced Harry emerge from the side of Niall’s car. Jack looks like he might cry and Louis cant help but wonder if this has something to do with Jack’s drunken guitar hero anecdote last night.

“Aimee can I have a word?”

“’Course H. What’s up?” She wanders over to the car and Harry grabs her arm and pulls her to the other side so that they are hidden from view. Curiosity strikes Louis; he has to know what this conversation is about. He sneaks over to the car and carefully opens the trunk, with the pretense of loading the last of Niall’s beer. 

“...hell would you tell Louis about Xander?”

“Fuck, H, I’m so sorry. He was just going on and on about how much he loves you and I thought ‘OMG, this is so great. Harry’s finally got someone whose gonna get him over Xander.’ I was so happy that I forgot that you didn’t want us to say anything about him in front of Louis. I’m so sorry, Harry. I thought he’d forgotten. He didn’t ask about it the next morning.”

“Jack is a fucking idiot and asked me why I didn’t give Greg’s ticket to Z last night at Metallica.”

Z. Fucking ouch. The nickname hurts more than Louis would like to admit. 

“God, Harry, I’m so sorry. But Louis loves you, yeah? You should let him love you Harry, he’s so good for you. I was saying to Laura that Xander never looked at you the way that Louis looks at you.”

Louis has heard enough. Is this why Harry got so weird last night? Because he’s still in love with this Xander guy? What kind of name is that even? Fucking Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s loser friend. This must be why Harry didn’t say that he loved Louis back. Because he doesn’t. Louis knew Harry was too good to be true. He had to come with some baggage. 

Louis is going to love Harry so hard that he forgets all about this stupid Xander character. Louis knows he belongs with Harry, he feels whole and complete when he is with him. Louis is a little annoyed that no one told him about Xander before this. Why hadn’t Niall, Liam, or Perrie told him? How unfair. When the opportunity presents itself he is going to demand one of them to tell him the truth.

A little while later, they get on the road and Louis’ mind is briefly free from disturbing thoughts of Harry and Xander, who looks a lot like a certain 90’s television actor in Louis’ mind. On the ride back, Sophia sits in the passenger seat while Liam sits behind her. Louis is in the middle with Harry on his right.

“So who was everyone’s favorite act?” Louis inquires.

It’s Harry’s answer that Louis really cares about. “I had an amazing time at Catfish and the Bottlemen,” he whispers into Louis’ ear, although not very skillfully, for Liam, Sophia, and Niall had all heard him.

“What happened there?” Niall asks with eyebrows raised.

“Louis told me that he looooves me.” Harry plants a wet kiss on his boyfriend’s cheek.

“What!” Sophia exclaims rather excitedly.

Liam smiles widely and says, “Good for you, Louis.”

“Aw, Tommo’s in love. Harreh, how exciting.”

“And later, Louis asked me to be his boyfriend.”

Louis' cheeks are blushing. Harry’s revealing all of his secrets to the world, or at least to the car.

“I don’t know why I did any of these things,” Louis says through red cheeks, with his head leaning into Harry’s side.

Harry angles his body so that he can grab Louis’ face and kiss him. “It’s because you loooove me.”

Louis doesn’t ask Harry if he loves him back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry we haven't updated in ages! Please leave a comment if you have any feedback whatsoever
> 
> Thanks for reading!!


	7. Chapter 7

The week following Leeds passes in an exhaustive blur, Louis taking on some day shifts at the pub to make some extra cash and Harry extremely busy at the gallery, preparing for a new exhibit premiering the next week. Louis only sees Harry at night, having given Harry a key to his place so on the nights that he can’t meet Louis at the pub, Louis arrives home at his flat to find a sleeping Harry looking peaceful in his bed. He finds himself staring at his boyfriend in a kind of awe; how much Harry looks like he belongs in his bed, in his dingy little flat. He’s not sure he could ever tire of watching Harry sleep in his bed. Louis goes to wash his teeth after his behavior has escalated from fond to creepy.

On the Friday evening after Leeds, Louis invites Niall, Liam and Sophia, and Zayn over to his place. Harry will meet them later, the curly lad having to go on an emergency frame excursion. Although he wants Harry to get return so that he can give the younger man a kiss, Harry’s absence works in favor of his plan: to corner either Niall or Liam and demand they tell him about Xander. He’s sure the opportunity will present itself sometime during the night. Zayn arrives first, and Louis is able to catch up with his mate and learn about his romantic interest with a woman named Rebecca, who has two kids. Louis is surprised to find Zayn on board with dating a woman with kids, but he’s happy for him all the same. Louis had already told Zayn about his developments with Harry, how he realized and told the younger man that he loves him, and the fact that they are now boyfriends. But he refrains from telling him about his frustration over this Xander character. He plans to have the answers to his questions by the end of the evening.

Niall, Liam, and Sophia show up some time later, Niall having brought beer and potato crisps, and Liam and Sophia, a bottle of wine. Louis puts the chicken he plans on making on the grill and begins to catch up with the three of them, after introducing Sophia and Zayn. Zayn asks them all to recount their adventures at Leeds. He was extremely jealous that Louis got to go to the festival for basically free. Louis bought Harry’s friend Greg’s ticket at a sliver of the initial cost, with the festival not having sold out he could not sell it for face value. Louis rises from the pouf he had been sitting on to go out onto his balcony to check on the chicken. He asks Niall to accompany him with the pretense of not wanting to be lonely outside. Niall willingly agrees, grateful for the opportunity to light his spliff. Louis grabs a beer out of the fridge and leads them outside. As Louis rotates the chicken, Niall lights up, leaning against the railing and begins chatting aimlessly.

“It’s a nice view you’ve got Tommo. Not too nice, but nice enough.”

“Thanks Niall.” Louis finishes tending the chicken and goes to lean over the rail next to Niall. Niall offers him his spliff. Louis takes it and like Niall, stares off into the distance of the building across the way.

“So.”

“Sooo,” Niall mimics. When Louis doesn’t add anything, he asks, “What’s up, Tommo?”

“I was just wondering, if you would be so kind enough, to tell me about Xander.”

Niall, who had been taking a swig of Louis’ beer, chokes and spits a large mouthful of beer over the ledge. Coughing, the Irishman sputters, “Shit. Did Harry say something about him?”

“No. Aimee, and Jack actually, let something slip at Leeds.”

“Shit man. I—uh. I don’t know if it’s my place.”

“That’s not fair. It’s not fair that Harry’s been so dishonest with me and that he’s got all of his friends lying as well. I’ve been so fucking vulnerable with him and he has this huge wall up that he won’t even let me chip away at. It’s fucking frustrating.”

“Shit Tommo, you weren’t even supposed to find out.”

“Well obviously he was a big part of Harry’s life and he fucked Harry over and Harry can’t even love me because of him.”

Niall takes the spliff from Louis and takes a long drag.

“Liam thinks Harry ought to have told you about him. I didn’t agree with him at first, but now I reckon he was right.”

Louis waits for him to continue.

“Xander’s one of our friends from uni. He’s actually the one who connected us with Nick, and Jack, and all them. But anyways, Harry met him toward the end of our first year in one of his arts classes. Harry used to say it was love at first sight was he saw Z. But he didn’t get the courage to tell him about his feelings until the end of third year. But after pining for the first three years of uni Harry finally told him how he felt and it turns out Z had similar feelings and they got together during summer hols after third year, after Xander had graduated. They dated seriously for the last year of uni, well Harry and mine’s last year. Z’s your age, I think. But whatever, they were in love and annoying as fuck to be around sometimes. They started sharing a flat fourth year and lived together afterwards too. After Harry and I graduated, they moved to a different flat closer to Z’s job, he does graphic design. But anyway, Harry would’ve gone or done anything to make Xander happy, and Z would do the same for Harry. But around Christmas time a year after we graduated, Z got an offer to move to work for this amazing design firm in New York City. I think it’s one of the best design companies in the world. It was an amazing opportunity and obviously he took it.”

Niall pauses here and takes another drag; he looks up as if visualizing what words to say next. After a minute or so he continues. “What was kind of shit of him was that he didn’t ask Harry to come with him or nothin’, which Harry would have done in a heartbeat. He just told Harry he got the job and that he was accepting the offer. I remember Harry telling me about their conversation. He was so excited for Xander. They just wanted the best for each other, you know? So Harry asked him when they needed to move by. And he told that he was starting his new job in two weeks and that he would help Harry pay for his part of the rent until their lease ended in February so Harry didn’t have to move until then. Harry was confused and he was like ‘aren’t I going with you’ and Xander told him that he didn’t want to drag Harry away from all of his family and friends, that his life is here in the UK, and that he didn’t want Harry to move across to pond with him only to resent him later. He also told Harry that he didn’t want to have a long distance relationship, that he cherished Harry more than anything in his life, but that this move was something he needed to do. Harry tried so hard to fight for them. But Z didn’t want to disrupt Harry’s life. I know he loved Harry. It was like, he loved him so much that he wouldn’t let Harry do something so big just for him. You know?” Niall stops there and turns a concerned eye to Louis, who remained uncharacteristically silent for the entire story.

“This was last year?”

“Yeah. Well, closer to two years now.”

“That’s why Harry said Liam wasn’t expecting him to move in.” Louis thinks about Liam and his protectiveness of Harry, and Lou and Caroline’s suspicious eyes.

“Was Harry heartbroken?” he demands of Niall.

“Yeah. I’ve never seen anything like it. I think he thought he was going to be with Z forever. Like marriage and babies and stuff. He was fuckin’ in love with him. It was shit because I was best mates with both of them—our whole group was. We all had to help Harry get over Xander, but we had to be supportive of Z at the same time. It was near impossible for me. I definitely made Harry my priority over Z. I haven’t spoken to him in around 6 months, last time was to wish him happy birthday. But I don’t know if Harry would’ve survived without Liam and Lou. God, he was such a wreck. It took him a few months to start acting human again, and another few months for him to actually feel good.”

“So it was a little over a year before he met me?”

“Look Louis, this is why I didn’t know if it was best to tell you. When Harry met you, he was in a good place. He was over it. I won’t say that he isn’t still affected by it, clearly he is because he asked us all to lie about it, but he’s over it, he’s over Xander. When he met you, god, it was a breath of fresh air. Seeing Harry excited and even interested by someone. He couldn’t stop talking about you afterwards.” Niall pauses and smiles. “He even called you, ‘the one that got away’ because he didn’t get your number at the shower.”

“But anyway, you should know that Harry loves you, even if he hasn’t said it. He's learned to close himself off so well. But Louis, the way he talks about you, you mean a lot to him.”

Niall says this last sentence with an air of finality, signaling that the discussion of Harry’s past pain and current feelings is over.

“How’s the chicken?”

“Oh. It’s probably done. You can head inside if you want and tell the others that dinner’s ready.” Louis pauses before adding, “Hey, Niall?”

“Yah?”

“Thank you for being honest.”

“‘Course Tommo. Just promise me that you won’t freak out and ruin things with Harry.”

Attempting to be lighthearted, he counters, “I’ll try, but I’m a bit of a fuck up in general so it’s only a matter of time.”

Louis spends a few more minutes outside, pretending to work on the chicken, but really is just collecting his thoughts. Harry was in love; he had felt how Louis feels about him, about someone else. It's extremely painful for Louis to think about. But Niall had said that he is sure that Harry loves Louis. That gives Louis a sliver of hope. Louis doesn’t know how he compares to Xander in Harry’s mind. Can you really fall in love with two different people? Louis can’t imagine ever feeling the way he does about Harry towards another person. But maybe going through heartbreak changes you; maybe Harry is a completely different person than when he met Xander; maybe he will be able to love Louis as much as he had loved Xander. Louis can only hope. So Harry’s not perfect, but Louis can work with that. He can still love him through his pain and insecurities. He can still try to break down the walls that Harry has stacked up around his heart. 

Louis thinks about how much Harry has done to show him that he cares, and that is what ultimately calms him down. He’s able to serve his friends chicken and potato salad without freaking out, and when Harry gets back to Louis’, he is able to greet him kiss and a genuine smile.

.

The next Monday evening, Louis gets his shift covered so that he can accompany Harry to the exhibit opening as his date. Harry proudly introduces Louis as his boyfriend to anyone and everyone. He holds Louis’ hand the entire time, pressing kisses to his cheeks, hands, and lips sporadically throughout the evening. None of Harry’s photos were included in the display, so he isn’t required to stay through the evening. Instead they go back to Harry and Liam’s flat and spend some quality time cuddling on the couch with a bottle of wine. Liam is at Sophia’s so it is just the two of them. Harry is curled into Louis’ side with the top of his head under Louis’ chin.

“You were so professional tonight, babe.” Louis dotes on Harry as he wrings a finger through a strand of his hair.

“Hmm. Could have been more professional, but it was hard with you standing there looking so sexy in your turtleneck.”

“Well I figured the turtleneck would be a good idea, since it hid the love bites you so graciously left on my neck.”

“Mmm. Don’t regret it at all.”

“Me either. I’m glad when everyone can see that I’m taken.” Louis remembers what Harry said all those weeks ago, the first time they had lunch together in the park. “Hey, Harry.”

“Yeah?”

“Remember when you asked if you could take photos of me?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I’m just letting you know that you can take photos of me if you want.”

Harry laughs. “Thanks Lou. But you know I already of plenty of photos of you on my camera roll.”

Louis whacks his arm playfully. “No Harry, like real photos. If you want someone to take photos of, you can take them of me.”

Inspiration strikes and Harry sits up. “Let’s take some this weekend.” 

“Like here?”

“No. Let’s get out of the city for the weekend. We can go to the beach. I’d love to take your photos by the sea. Imagine how blue your eyes would look.” He grabs his computer off of the coffee table. “I’ll book us a room,” he says with a smile in Louis’ direction.


End file.
